Modern psychologists tell us that empathy is an innate human characteristic and that if you lack it, then there is definitely something wrong with you. But where is there documentation to prove this, since the human species has evolved and continues to evolve? Empathy is innate, but what an individual needs to function properly is perhaps highly overrated.
Why would anyone make this comment? Well, if you give things to others out of empathy and end up without yourself, are you doing yourself any good? Are you really helping those you are giving as well, or are you weakening them? “Teach a man to fish, don’t give him fish” is appropriate for this philosophical argument.
Also, if you have too much empathy, then maybe you are the one who is weak, weaker than normal, and therefore perhaps you need a psychological check-up and not those whom you label as “non-empathic” or self-centered. Why is too much empathy bad in a society? Well, let me give you an example.
The end result of too much empathy in society at the collective level would be that we taxpayers agree to purchase a $ 10,000 scooter wheelchair for anyone who wants one, regardless of their ability to use their hands to move the wheels of a normal wheelchair. It means that we agree to spend unlimited money for people to have 8 different drug prescriptions and doctor visits three times a week.
Too much empathy is bad and it is unwise to fall into the empathy trap of political correctness. That’s one example, but even this small example of what’s wrong with Medicare has in fact grown to epic proportions and threatens to bankrupt our country. Is bankruptcy of our country a noble goal, simply for the sake of empathy? If so, we all lose and personally, and let me take a chance here; I think losing sucks. And you?
