Briefly on Empathy as a Double-Edged Sword

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

Empathy is such a double-edged sword — the death of a friend’s parent or relative. Relationship struggles can cause harm to someone you care about. An acquaintance sickness. The insensibility of our World’s ruling classes by perpetuating genocide, famine, and suffering as methods for political violence, abuses of force from entities designed to protect us, and overall injustices in the World. The seemingly for-profit mass layoffs. The open exploitation of our fellow human beings.

The overwhelming sense of responsibility will cut the hand that grips too tight, and the spectrum of situations is vast and equally sharp along its edges.

How much do we have to compromise ourselves and desensitize to move on and keep grinding onwards? At what point do we break down? Can we responsibly afford to break down?