Supreme Court: Only Psychopaths need apply

Empathy is the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings and thoughts of another without having to be told. So people with empathy feel what it is like to have a sick wife or child and no health insurance even though they themselves feel secure in their own insurance. We sit in our living rooms watching television on our wide screen TVs and feel what it is like to have no food for hungry children or to sleep on a side walk. In the 1860s empathy was the quality that made some white men willing to die to make black men free. Lack of empathy (or selective empathy) prevented some white men from recognizing any moral problem in that institution.

Psychopaths have no empathy. Jonah Lehrer in his book “How we decide” says Modern Psychiatrists have determined that many of the people who perpetrate terrible crimes are psychopaths. John Wayne Gacy was such a person. He could murder a young boy, go to bed with his wife and sleep like a baby. He had no perception of other people’s pain. Many psychopaths have brilliant, logical minds. But psychopaths are dangerous, because they have damaged emotional brains. Although they are prone to violence, most will not run afoul of the law.

The Republicans have always shown empathy for the rich and well-connected . I can never forget the spectacle of Bob Dole, on national television, in near tears when the Clinton administration succeeded in raising the marginal tax rates of the wealthiest tax payers. On the other hand few Republicans seem overly concerned about the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year for lack of healthcare.They empathize with weapons manufacturers and multinational corporations. They will push for continuing to spend billions on the totally unnecessary F22 fighter plane while arguing that we cannot afford to provide for the thousands of their fellow Americans who are dying for lack of healthcare.


They cannot conceive that an individual can have empathy for the suffering of all mankind. This is most evident in their perception of Obama himself. They cannot accept that this black looking man could have empathy for the feelings of white people even though they know he was raised and beloved by white grandparents. For Republicans empathy is a partisan thing, restricted to people just like themselves.


This is ironic. These guys, who bear their religion on their chests like military decorations, forget that Jesus greatest contribution to moral philosophy was His extension of the concept of “neighbor” to include all of mankind, including even enemies. This is why Republicans distrust empathy in others.