Envisioning an Empathic Civilization, Together
A FRIEND ASKED me the other day what an empathic civilization would look like. I thought for a minute and said, “It looks like this. It looks like the human race.” We are an empathic species, and this is our civilization. This, right now, is where we are in our communal development of empathy. Almost every one of us achieved skill in all six aspects of empathy before we were two years old; we are empaths, we created this civilization, and this is what an empathic civilization looks like right now.
If you know what to look for, you can find empathy everywhere. Empathy is our nonverbal language and our interactive skill set, and it’s a source of endless fascination. We pay people large sums of money to emote skillfully so that we can empathize with them; we interact empathically with art, animals, nature, and ideas; and we join groups intentionally so that we can feel specific emotions, including delightfully deep empathy for our in-group and deliciously deep enmity for the out-group. Empathy is our first language, our universal bonding skill, our captivating plaything, and our devastating weapon—we are a wholly empathic species.
This book is a part of my swashbuckling empathic quest to bring emotions and empathy out of the deep shadows and into the light of day—because, you see, emotions and empathy are alive and active in our every moment; they’re visible everywhere if you know where to look. Emotions and empathy are fundamental tools of human cognition, human interactions, and human culture; they make us who we are. We are an empathic species, but if we’re going to make a world worth living in, we have to become intentional empaths: emotionally awakened, well-regulated, healthy, happy, and perceptive empaths. This is my quest. This is my zany heroic journey.
Thank you for taking this empathic journey with me. I’ve sat far too still for many months, alone in front of my computer, yet I’ve been on a fully interactive journey that could only happen because you were with me. People who call writing a solitary occupation—I don’t think they’re highly empathic, because writing is a conversation and an extended imaginal relationship that exists in its own unique world. These words on this page, they sit here doing nothing until you bring your Einfühlung capacities, your intelligence, your intensity, and your empathy into our relationship. If you’ve enjoyed this book, I’m glad, but it’s your empathic abilities that made these words speak to you. Thank you for your deep empathic attention, thank you for your emotive presence, and thank you for sharing the art of empathy with me.
Now go out and create some beautiful new stories about empathy. You are the storyteller, you are an empath, and this is your civilization.