On Compassion What is one of the biggest factors that contributes to so many of today’s social issues? It is the lack of understanding and care for others, known as compassion. In Barbara Ascher’s, “On Compassion”, she uses multiple examples of instances that the true intention behind the actions were unclear on if they were from a place of compassion or not. Ultimately, Ascher comes to close her essay with the idea that yes, compassion is something we do and MUST learn. Although there are people who are naturally more compassionate than others, compassion is something that is learned based on the fact of how children come to be compassionate, people who can not learn to be compassionate, and people who have been through similar experiences
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While children may not pick up everything that we do, they still learn from us. Although it seems that some can not grasp the idea of compassion or are simply not taught and that is something that they carry with them for the rest of their lives. We meet many people in our lives and some seem more compassionate, while others seem to not quite understand what it would be like in someone else’s place. Psychiatry professor, Thomas G. Plante, claims that the research he has conducted and read on, shows that temperament plays a large role in the development of compassion. The modelling of compassion most certainly reflects back in our early days, which is how we come to the conclusion of how we treat others. Take the woman, who was with her child, from the essay as an example. Did she truly act upon an overwhelming sense of compassion or did she feel guilty? It was something that society seemed to have imprinted in her mind. Had she not given the man a dollar, would her conscious realize that she has been taught other things, and that what she did was wrong? We may never know. The time that I have noticed that people seem to lack compassion the most, is when they have not been in a similar situation. They can not possibly comprehend the why you feel that way you do. Since people who haven’t been through an experience usually are lacking in compassion, the opposite for people who have been can be
While children may not pick up everything that we do, they still learn from us. Although it seems that some can not grasp the idea of compassion or are simply not taught and that is something that they carry with them for the rest of their lives. We meet many people in our lives and some seem more compassionate, while others seem to not quite understand what it would be like in someone else’s place. Psychiatry professor, Thomas G. Plante, claims that the research he has conducted and read on, shows that temperament plays a large role in the development of compassion. The modelling of compassion most certainly reflects back in our early days, which is how we come to the conclusion of how we treat others. Take the woman, who was with her child, from the essay as an example. Did she truly act upon an overwhelming sense of compassion or did she feel guilty? It was something that society seemed to have imprinted in her mind. Had she not given the man a dollar, would her conscious realize that she has been taught other things, and that what she did was wrong? We may never know. The time that I have noticed that people seem to lack compassion the most, is when they have not been in a similar situation. They can not possibly comprehend the why you feel that way you do. Since people who haven’t been through an experience usually are lacking in compassion, the opposite for people who have been can be