Are we biologically hardwired to feel compassion?

What causes compassion anyway? Is it peer pressure, guilt, a gentle nature or what? When I got done with speculating possible causes, I decided to do some research to see what others were saying about the causes of compassion (one of my least favorite talked-about causes is "selfishness"). I came across a book by Dacher Keltner entitled Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life. Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, has an entire chapter on Compassion and he argues that there is a science behind the feeling of compassion and that it is the vagus nerve which inspires it. Cool! Here's how he describes the vagus nerve in action: it "resides in the chest and, when activated, produces a feeling of spreading, liquid warmth in the chest and a lump in the throat" (228). Most interesting, in light of my prior post regarding compassion fatigue, Keltner begins his chapter on compassion by describing acts of compassion that occured in history during times of warfare. He calls these acts of compassion (and he cites specific examples from a Nazi concentration camp, the My Lai massacre, the genocide in Rwanda) examples of "sympathy breakthrough" (225).

COMPASSION

As I thought more about that young man's simple response that he was thankful for his bed, I thought about how it was prompted by his knowledge of the suffering of others around him. I then began to think about the word "compassion" and how it prompts people to care about others and to do good. The Oxford English Dictionary has some interesting things to say about the word compassion and how it has been used in the English language. You can look more closely at the definitions here: http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50045414?query_type=word&queryword=compassion&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=1&search_id=2M6e-de5WGi-5661&hilite=50045414 The first definition provides an obsolete definition that fell out of use by the 17th century. This intrigues me because the definition focuses on a person "suffering together with another". The later definitions of compassion lose the sense that the person feeling it must also share in the suffering. What was most interesting, however, was when I scrolled down I discovered another word which was "compassion fatigue" which originated in the U.S. (how telling, I thought) circa 1968 and which describes an apparently new sensation particularly among Americans to the suffering of others. That new feeling is "apathy or indifference". I'll have to think some more about whether I think compassion or compassion fatigue is more prevalent today. That young man's response certainly makes me think that compassion fatigue has not won the day yet.

what do you think of when you think of a bed?

thanksgiving goodness

I heard a radio program this morning in which students from a middle school in New York City were asked to comment upon what they were thankful for and what they were NOT thankful for. One young man simply stated he was thankful for his bed because he knew there were people that did not have a bed. It occurred to me that this young man was someone who was interested in helping others