BILL KNIGHT

In the last few months, Facebook users have posted a quote attributed to Dr. Anthony Fauci: “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care for other people.” The thought was real but actually written by Lauren Morril, an author of young-adult novels who posted it in 2017.

Still: keen observation.

Caring for others is empathy. Empathy’s not sympathy, which is good, but incomplete, just feeling bad for someone. Empathy is openness to others and more. Generally, it’s when people identify with, try to understand and share others’ situations and feelings, to “sense the hurt or the pleasure of another.”

But recently, there’ve been critics. Cynics, I’d say, complaining that empathy is dangerous or old-fashioned.

Northwestern University researcher Kevin Waldman in April warned of “radical empathy.” He didn’t adequately explain, but “radical” is a loaded word with connotations, intentional or not. It’s like saying a woman’s “only” 5-foot-2, which implies she should be taller. (Maybe, if she’s in the WNBA.)

Also, multibillionaire Elon Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” The world’s richest person, Musk might be respected for his Machiavellian business skills. But business is different than public affairs.

Of course, some probably take advantage of others’ good nature — their empathy — for bad motives. Take Musk’s unelected Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) exploiting people’s wariness about “fraud” and “waste” to convince everyday Americans to assume gutting government is OK, even without reason or proof. But New York Times columnist David French objected, writing about “the strange case of Christians against empathy,” a weird trend since the Bible explicitly says, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

That Golden Rule occurs in many faiths, too. Judaism teaches, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.” In Islam, it’s “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what he desires for himself.”

A century ago, Oxford psychologist William McDougall said humans’ capacity to empathize was not learned, in church or at home, but hard-wired into us, an impulse or instinct. Empathy might be natural for living things, too, not just people. For instance, psychologist Mark Davis (of Eckerd College in Florida) found that a bird sensing danger to its nest often leads a predator away from chicks. That’s empathy, he says — and practical. If there are three baby birds, each shares about 50% of its genes with the parent, so although the parent risks 100% of its own genes, it saves 50% three times, or 150%. The parent is at risk, but the species survives. Writing about the parent bird, Davis said, “Some mechanism is necessary to prompt the organism to take the altruistic action.”

In people, empathy can fade or vanish if they have “compassion fatigue,” feeling tired of caring and accepting “social Darwinism,” a “survival of the fittest” in how human beings behave toward each other.

But 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes warned of such a world, “of every man is enemy to every man” and suggested that governments may be the best control on those who are so self-centered. Without empathy, he said, even well-informed, well-educated people can get isolated.

“In such condition,” Hobbes said, “there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no culture; no knowledge; no arts; no letters; no society; and worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

Empathy is strongest within groups, where people already identify with each other — family and friends, clubs, races, faiths, even gangs. But sometimes a strong sense of unity within a group can lead to suspicion or fear of others. So some people take advantage of people’s differences. They blame, demonize or worse, often without logic and certainly without putting themselves in others’ places.

Philosopher Hannah Arendt, who wrote “The Human Condition” (1958), said, “The death of human empathy is one of the early and most telling signs that a culture is about to fall into barbarism.”

People must resist that, according to another author, Berkeley philosophy professor George Lakoff. He said, “One way authoritarians defeat democracy is by trying to destroy empathy. Their strategies depend on dehumanization, demonization and division. Empathy is a powerful antidote to fascism and hatred. Democracy depends on empathy — you can’t have democracy without it.”

Empathy helps individuals, families and societies hold together, like when farmers get together and harvest a sick neighbor’s fields. Empathy helps individuals get by and species survive.

Jonathan Sacks, one-time chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, remembered the Old Testament line: “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger: You were strangers in the land of Egypt.” The New Testament was even stronger, Matthew plainly says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

As Rabbi Sacks wrote, “Active empathy is life-changing, not only for the people with whom you interact, but for you.”