Cauterizing the Nerves of Compassion

I heard this talk by Shane Hipps last night (visiting Mars Hill) - and played this part three times to let it really sink in - I really related to this. He was comparing oral/tribal cultures to our culture in the digital age, and technology’s paradoxical effect on compassion and empathy....

"The electronic age is creating a spirituality of empathy at a distance. This happens when (through all of our technology) we begin to experience the weight of planetary suffering. It is the vicarious experience of September 11th. Right after that it’s the tsunami. Shortly after that a hurricane. And then the ongoing death, genocide, starvation of the world. And here’s what happens - because we’re vicariously experiencing this – we have the empathetic encounter – we see those images and we say ‘this is terrible! I can’t believe it, what can we do?’, and we unleash billions of dollars… for about a month. And now all of that money dries up because you’ve got Hurricane Katrina to take care of, and after that who knows what’s next.

And it actually has a strange paradoxical effect. We are connected and we care about all the things that are going on in the world, but in fact because there is so much of it to comprehend the natural psychological reaction is helplessness, hopelessness, numbness and apathy. The feeling of ‘what can I do?’. We become cold (got to take our kids to school, got bills to pay) – and the overwhelming global empathy has the effect of cauterizing the nerves of compassion."

This last part hit me the hardest. I'm still processing what to do with it.