Pity, sympathy, empathy, and affection

Pity is a dangerous emotion. Given current usage, feelings of superiority or condescension creep in. Sympathy (from the Greek sympátheia, referring to the sensation of suffering) is rapidly headed down the same path. .

We've managed to preserve empathy, firmly rooted in the Greek empátheia or affection.

These etymologies have consequences for what we choose to do.

In the past, "social work", "charity", "pious works" were the sought after feel-gooders. They're self-aggrandizing and slow. One's need to feel needed encourages a steady-state of dependence in the other. At a more extreme level, there was martyrdom and self-flagellation. What purpose does it serve? Whom does it lift?

Do not be poor with the poor.

In current parlance, the "social enterprise" starts to adopt a similar grandeur. A purpose is lauded because it makes money and therefore sustains itself. But this line between "non-profit" and "for-profit" is not what we should obsess about.

The critical distinction between organizations is apparent in thinking about empathy. Both types of organizations teach men how to fish. But loosey-goosey generalizations can only take us so far. We need to ask how happy our end beneficiaries are. How do we measure their happiness? Who asseses the data? How happy our employees and vendors are? How do we measure their happiness? We need to do what it takes to get to "customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, frugality, high hiring and innovation". These are all reflections of empathy for ourselves and others.

Lila Watson suggests the ultimate, "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together".


End Notes
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