Evolutionar Compassion

Compassion can change lives and it can change

Often times, many forget to be kind to one another. When we are performing out our daily activities we forget to think about other people. Individuals can be naturally selfish or self- centered. There are multiple obstacles working against our being kind to one another. Our own success being one of them. We must remember to put ourselves in the shoes of the other person, in order to understand the issues in front of us. It is not easy to become detached ourselves from how we usually are nor how we are born, but it is imperative that we try to ensure a brighter future.

It is well-known that life in this world is hard, always waiting for the ugly truth from people to preoccupied with their own lives to care. We know empathy and compassion only stretch so far. Having seen how uncompassionate people seem to be, Barbara Ascher, the author of on compassion, expressed that having such traits makes us a better people and the adversity at our feet keeps it ever so prevalent. We aren't born with compassion, we are taught such characteristics. Through the use of imagery, rhetorical question, and allusion, Ascher compels her audience that learning compassion and having adversity at our doorstep is a need for our society.

“On Compassion” exhibits the changes in which humans have encountered that contributed to the trait of care and compassion in us

Compassion impels us to work to alleviate the suffering of our fellow man, to remove ourselves from the center of our world and put another there, and to honor the sanctity of every single person treating everybody, without exception, with justice, equity and respect.

Ascher’s essay describes the ways she has seen compassion showed, through voluntary donations, food, shelter. She openly questions what drives humans to be compassionate to each other. As a successful author who

Barbara Lazear Ascher writes a well formed essay on the concept of compassion. Compassion is something that we do for others out of the kindness of our hearts. She focuses more on the poor, just how we show them sympathy, why do we do such things. Is showing empathy from our hearts or just for them to go away. I enjoyed this essay due to the fact, that she gives humanistic reasons on why people are compassionate, she doesn’t sugar coat anything, and lastly she breaks down the compassion that she sees everyday.

The purpose of this essay is to question the readers. Ascher wants the audience to analyze themselves to determine the reason behind why people show kindness, whether it is out of fear, pity, or compassion.

Are people born with a complete quandary when it comes to compassion or is it something that has always been there? Barbara Lazear Ascher, born in 1946, writes, “On Compassion.” Having lived in New York City, Ascher is able to take first hand examples from the city to show the affection people have towards each other. Ascher is able to illustrate that compassion is something that has to be taught because of the adversity at people’s heels by including tone, persuasive appeals, and the mode of comparing and contrast in her essay, “On Compassion.”

Compassion has little to no boundries. In almost every great story there is a specific character or a group of characters that help the protagonist because they feel bad for them. Compassion is the most important aspect of a functioning society; therefore, Elie Wiesel’s Night, 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose, and the generosity of spirit shown by the average citizen after the recent shooting in Las Vegas are all perfect examples.

“A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal”, said by Steve Maraboli in his book Life, the Truth, and Being Free. Simply giving to others is one thing, but to witness contentment through one’s facial expression is another.

The benefits of generosity for both our physical and mental health are outstanding. generosity reduces stress, supports one’s physical health, enhances one’s sense of purpose, and helps fight depression, it has also been shown to increase one’s lifespan because all the health benefits of not being stressed. You may think you are being selfless, but you are also benefiting yourself in a way you did not know about. Developing compassion increases our happiness. In an experiment published in Science by Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton, they gave money to; two sets of groups, one that spent money on themselves and the other spent it on other people. It was found that the people who bought presents for others showed an increase in happiness, this was even the case with children giving treats to others. We are using an unselfish event and making for an ego boost. However, by doing so we need to become conscious of the world around us.

Empathy is an innate trait that all humans have and it is the one that we most readily feel, while compassion is a feeling that must be acquired. Ascher astutely points out that “empathy is the mother of compassion” (par.13). In this noteworthy parallel, Ascher compares empathy to a nurturing mother and compassion to the fruit of her labor. Like a mother who has an inherent instinct to protect and teach her young, so too does one have an innate understanding and sensitivity to the feelings and experiences of another, and it is only from these life experiences that the birth of a new awareness is brought forth in the form of compassion. Similar to a mother’s tutelage, Ascher describes compassion as a “learned” behavior that allows one to consciously act upon the distress of others by actively alleviating it. According to Ascher, “Compassion is not a character trait like a sunny disposition. It must be learned, and it is learned by having adversity at our window…” (par.13). In other words, true compassion can only be learned when one is faced with it every day of ones life and that once it becomes “familiar”, only then it can become identifiable and conjure empathy.

Cooperation and altruism is what largely divides humans from other animals. While some primate and certain other species do seem to show some precursors to these types of behaviors, none come close to the ability of humans to help each other. Much of this has to do with our ability to act unselfishly despite the fact that in the short term being selfish would be more beneficial. Some groups take this to the extreme like the Hutterites who live in a society where everyone works to serve others. In his book The Origins of Virtue Matt Ridley claims that “we are all Hutterites at heart” (38). However, this does not actually seem to be true the majority of the time. In fact, more often and not, we act selfishly if we can get away with it without any repercussions. One of the strongest bits of evidence against this statement comes from experiments in children that show that very young children are more likely to act selfishly instead of altruistically. Additionally, game theory studies have shown that people are overall more selfish when they are anonymous compared to when their actions and decisions are being watched. This would seem to indicate Hutterite’s beliefs are not so central to our lives. At the same time, these studies also show that people are not as selfish as would be expected if they were only looking out for their benefit. And there are plenty of instances where a person goes out of their way to help a complete stranger. Overall, I think Ridley’s claim is mostly

Humans are a very confusing species with a multitude of different things that impact their everyday lives. The question that is raised through many different situations is if the human species is naturally aggressive or compassionate. This question is one of the most complicated that is posed in today’s society. With so many different things in today’s society representing both aggression and compassion many people wonder which one of these qualities naturally is present in humans. Throughout the world many different compassionate and aggressive acts are completed every day. I personally believe that humans are naturally compassionate. Humans as a whole do not want suffering, and a good portion of the world would be completely content with a peaceful compassionate world. While the humans are a complicated species this paper will display the theories of compassion by David Hume, biologist Franz De Waal, and many other different sources who are speaking on the topic of compassion.