Sunday, November 13, 2011

Compassion Round Up

From the Greater Good Science Center, based at the University of California-Berkeley, which studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.
Life is full of wonderful experiences. But it has its hard parts as well, such as physical and mental discomfort, ranging from subtle to agonizing. This is the realm of suf­fering, broadly defined. 
When someone you care about suffers, you naturally have compassion—the wish that a being not suffer, usually with a feeling of sympathetic concern. For example, if your child falls and hurts himself, you want him to be out of pain; if you hear that a friend is in the hospital, or out of work, or going through a divorce, you feel for her and hope that everything will be all right. Compassion is in your nature—it’s an important part of the neural and psychologi­cal systems we evolved to nurture children, bond with mates, and hold together the village it takes to raise a child. Read more....
From thepeoplesvoice.org--News & Viewpoints: environmental, political, and social justice issues
Are Millennials – at least the thousands chanting, “We want Joe” – missing a sensitivity chip? The answer, I’m afraid, is mixed. Paterno is part of “us.” The now-young men at the center of this tragedy, on the other hand, are presumed to be outsiders. The Millennials who are more outraged about the treatment of their beloved coach than the alleged victims of Jerry Sandusky are displaying compassion deficit disorder. Compassion deficit disorder means exactly what it says and it is part of our larger contemporary context, which is plagued by the Oppression Olympics, a term that describes what prevents us from recognizing our common ground and, worse, obscures common sense responses to outrageous violations of the public’s trust. Read more...


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