Y’all…this documentary on Teal Swan is WILD. Holy shit.
It’s making me think about empathy. Psychopaths don’t have it. Which is tricky, because they still form attachments, they still surround themselves with people…but, it’s kind of like how babies or animals will do the same thing, but not actually have empathy; they NEED those people. The attachments they form are out of necessity to get what they need. Same thing with babies. Same thing with animals (so far as we can tell, but we can tell a lot).
Empathy is the ability to feel what another person is feeling, and act accordingly. I can vividly and powerfully imagine hurting someone if I do this thing, and so I decide not to do that thing—even though *I* would gain something by doing it—because I don’t want them to feel the pain I imagined. Actions become not simply self-serving, but for the betterment or wellbeing of someone else. It’s…kind of an astonishing cognitive development if you really think about it. As far as we know we’re the only creatures in existence who have it. And not even all of us have it.
It’s also kind of wild that in a world where most people do experience empathy, someone who doesn’t kind of has a super power. We assume they’re like we are, that they feel what we feel and will act accordingly…but they don’t. And that’s confusing. A smart psychopath can take advantage of that in massive ways.
Empathy is really the super power. It makes our bonds SO MUCH stronger.
Psychopathy is the disease. It’s very natural, but just because something exists in nature doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s virtuous.
I don’t know where I’m going with this tonight really…just kind of spinning on this fucking show. It’s called The Deep End, it’s on Hulu…you should watch it and just think about empathy. Who’s showing it, and who isn’t. It tells the whole story of what’s going on.
Night night.