How Do We Instill Empathy?
How can we instill empathy? Is it only possible when the person undergoes the same trauma as others before he understands the other person’s viewpoint? I recently read an article about some, not a lot, conservatives are starting to move toward universal health care. The reason is they are starting to understand some of the situations where one may need ready access to health care because they are going through the same difficulties. Health care is a matter of life and death and once you do not have access, you start to understand what it means to need help. And these are the Trump voters. Some are finally getting it. But they are a minority.
“I do think that’s a human right to have access to health care…It’s like having access to clean water, food, and everything. It’s a basic human right.” Vox, "These Are the Trump Voters Who Believe in Universal Health Care", Dylan Scott, February 23, 2018.
“I’m conflicted. I’m truly conflicted.
Because you say the government shouldn’t be in medical care, but it is. We have Medicare. We have Social Security. We ultimately have it, for better or worse, what there is. And the poor have it. The wealthy can afford it. So you’re talking about the lower- to middle-class people who are stuck in the middle, paying a large chunk of their income in taxes that they don’t get to reap any benefits from. I don’t want to say it’s not fair, but I don’t see any way out of that unless you go to single-payer system.
And I am truly, and I’ll admit it, a die-hard Republican in 99 percent of my views, but over the last year I have really come to think differently about the health care I this country, and I wonder about a single-payer system. Something similar to Canada’s.” Ibid.
Most Republicans, though, still look at universal health care as allowing “those people” to mooch off the system. They don’t want others to have health care if those others are not working and thus not paying into the system. And still other Republicans view health care as not guaranteed by the Constitution.
And furthermore…
“They aren’t necessarily persuaded by tales of woe from some of their fellow Republican voters either. The system is mostly working for them – all but a few have insurance through their work – and they have very fixed ideas about what is an American notion of health care and what is not.” Ibid.
So how do we instill empathy without them actually having to live through the same trauma? It seems like the only time they understand is when they live through the situation, but sometimes you don’t want them to suffer before they understand.
One of the teenagers who went through the shooting in Parkland, Florida said that before the shooting, she was planning on joining the NRA and do target shooting with her rifle as part of her birthday party. Now, she can’t even think of having a gun on her. Instead, she’s fighting for an AR ban. But why does it have to come to that point before they understand?
Do they have to go through it before they get it? I wouldn’t wish either situation on anybody but it almost appears like they have learn the hard way.
