The Empathic Civilization

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March 24, 2012

a project of ServiceSpace

The functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy.

- Dean Koontz -

The Empathic Civilization

We humans are soft-wired for sociability and affection, wanting to belong and to empathize. The question is "Can we extend our empathy to the entire human race and biosphere?" Bringing in recent insights from fields like neuroscience to anthropology, author and social thinker Jeremy Rifkin's maps out a solution in a stunningly visual and cohesive way. In this ten-minute video, he defines the empathic civilization -- and suggests that if we can imagine that possibility, we can save our species and our planet. "Empathy is grounded in the acknowledgment of death and the celebration of life, and rooting for each other to flourish and be ... the ability to show solidarity not only with each other, but our fellow creatures." { read more }