Just over 14 years ago, my daughter almost died minutes before entering the world. My wife had to have an emergency C-section. The whole thing was harrowing. Someday I'll tell the whole story. But because of that experience, and simply because I am a father, I could empathize with late-night host
Empathy is different that sympathy or compassion. Sympathy is when you feel sorry for someone. Compassion is when you do something about it.
But empathy is something else. Researchers studying the brain can actually see how the various centers controlling certain feelings light up when we observe or imagine the experiences of others. "If you feel bad for someone who is bored, that's sympathy," writes
Bloom, a liberal transplant from
"When some people think about empathy, they think about kindness. I think about war," Bloom writes. He's got a point. Look at the
Again, Bloom is a squishy liberal by his own account, but he's also a leading scholar of how the mind actually works, not how we wish it would work.
Human beings are naturally inclined to sympathize and empathize with people like them. There has never been a society where people didn't give priority to helping family and friends over strangers. This tends to blind us "to the suffering of those we do not or cannot empathize with," writes Bloom. "Empathy is biased, pushing us in the direction of parochialism and racism."
Look at the intractable debate over the phrase "black lives matter." The slogan itself is a kind of spotlight, argue supporters, highlighting the legitimate complaints of African-Americans. But it also blinds them to why others respond to the term by saying "all lives matter."
I don't go as far as Bloom in detesting empathy. It seems to me not only natural but also defensible to give priority to figuratively kindred people.
But where I agree with Bloom is that empathy alone is dangerous and can distract us from rational thought and meaningful compassion.
Which brings me back to
But it is very difficult to have a rational discussion about the trade-offs inherent to any health-care system -- including socialized medicine -- when all anyone can think about is the ordeal of a newborn baby and his loving parents.
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Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and editor-at-large of National Review Online.