![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Empathy Modules
Mar. 20th, 2009 11:38 amSnake and I have a new theory about political correctness... It's a stand-in for true empathy.
We've been discussing empathy a lot lately, often in the context of those who try to instruct, teach, offer technical support, etc. without any sensitivity to the context of their words. Snake loves to show me wildly inappropriate teaching material that teachers put in front of ESL students. Most of the time the creators of the material have no idea that the concepts are culturally bound and have no meaning for their immigrant students.
I tend to collect examples from bad websites, like the Toronto Transit Commission, who list their bus routes NUMERICALLY instead of alphabetically. You know you want the Christie bus, but unless you happen to know off the top of your head that it's #126, you'll have to scroll through the whole list to find it. The TTC insiders responsible for this design lack the empathy to put themselves in the place of the searcher.
Now, we're whiny old fags, but we see an epidemic lack of empathy around us these days. Is empathy not being taught in a culture that is about looking out for number one? Is it a sign that people are too stretched to take the time to consider the POV of others? Perhaps it has to do with the fact that education is about getting the right talk-points for job interviews instead of about learning to think — learning to see the world from something beyond the context in which you were whelped.
We can't remember the source, but last week we heard the phrase, "Politeness takes the place of empathy in our culture". Interesting. It might even be necessary. You can't truly empathize with each of the million people you come across in the big city on a daily basis, but at least you can be polite.
I think that political correctness is also a short-cut. You don't know how to be empathic? Just follow these handy rules: don't say "faggot" or "nigger," carry certain trendy political views, buy certain products and you'll be all right. And you can get an RSS feed of new updates to the rules on a weekly or monthly basis.
Of course, it's a problematic short-cut. We need to base our decisions on a combination of empathy and hard fact, filtered through our evolving moral sense. It's not a recipe for mass-production of reactions the way political correctness is, but it's probably necessary for a just society.
We've been discussing empathy a lot lately, often in the context of those who try to instruct, teach, offer technical support, etc. without any sensitivity to the context of their words. Snake loves to show me wildly inappropriate teaching material that teachers put in front of ESL students. Most of the time the creators of the material have no idea that the concepts are culturally bound and have no meaning for their immigrant students.
I tend to collect examples from bad websites, like the Toronto Transit Commission, who list their bus routes NUMERICALLY instead of alphabetically. You know you want the Christie bus, but unless you happen to know off the top of your head that it's #126, you'll have to scroll through the whole list to find it. The TTC insiders responsible for this design lack the empathy to put themselves in the place of the searcher.
Now, we're whiny old fags, but we see an epidemic lack of empathy around us these days. Is empathy not being taught in a culture that is about looking out for number one? Is it a sign that people are too stretched to take the time to consider the POV of others? Perhaps it has to do with the fact that education is about getting the right talk-points for job interviews instead of about learning to think — learning to see the world from something beyond the context in which you were whelped.
We can't remember the source, but last week we heard the phrase, "Politeness takes the place of empathy in our culture". Interesting. It might even be necessary. You can't truly empathize with each of the million people you come across in the big city on a daily basis, but at least you can be polite.
I think that political correctness is also a short-cut. You don't know how to be empathic? Just follow these handy rules: don't say "faggot" or "nigger," carry certain trendy political views, buy certain products and you'll be all right. And you can get an RSS feed of new updates to the rules on a weekly or monthly basis.
Of course, it's a problematic short-cut. We need to base our decisions on a combination of empathy and hard fact, filtered through our evolving moral sense. It's not a recipe for mass-production of reactions the way political correctness is, but it's probably necessary for a just society.
