The Empathic Civilization
Jeremy Rifkin—economist, prolific author, and adviser to EU governments—offers this fascinating and promising view of a possible future.
As he reasons: If empathy is wired into our biology, and technology is fostering a new global awareness and identity, isn’t it possible to rethink the human narrative as a single race writ large in a single biosphere? (Witness, for example, the rapid worldwide outreach to Haitian earthquake victims.)
The cynical response would be to brush this off as Pollyanna, a well intentioned but sappy notion a la Esperanto and “We Are the World.” After all, scientists, philosophers and theologians have been exploring and debating the root of human nature for millennia, and yet we still fight wars.
But that would be missing the point. What Rifkin does so effectively here is help us see who we are—and who we might become. It’s well worth contemplating.
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