Reflection on Empathy

Currently, as social beings in the hostile post-capitalist scenario of the self-aware polis of their individuality, we live exposed to a constant contradictory but perfectly balanced duality. The era of the most hostile individualism, seasoned with feigned emotional fullness, psychological and spiritual self-knowledge, modernity applied to the survival of minorities in a chameleonic system that absorbs everything and transforms it into self-help reading. A person who finds it difficult to share a flat even with his own partner, who feeds his curriculum of false self-imposed solidarity by combining yoga classes with instagram posts in his abandoned volunteer group, categorically claims to know first-hand what empathy means. Then sleeps peacefully, next to a person that cannot be fully understood, and inside a stranger (oneself).

Empathy is a label, an attractive trend that sells out and makes us see ourselves as never before: I am the most sensitive, I am the most active activist, I am the best at not being the best (even though I am). It makes us reward ourselves in the form of visibility, of love for our neighbor with a reward in mind. Wasn't it Kant who already spoke of impossible altruism, of the moral conscience that always wants more to be calm? An ethical reward, after all, is still reward, selfish pride, necessity. Altruism cannot leave us alone in its provocation, but be that as it may, it needs our beloved empathy, but what is it?

Empathy is the understanding and connection with the other from within their paradigm, very different from sympathy, which is the understanding and connection with the other from our eyes. Empathy is not only necessary for social survival, but to be able to look and see the world from a glass without fogging. When we talk about community life, active listening and knowing one's neighbor bases for peaceful coexistence and the proper functioning of social life are required. Without listening, without analysis, without knowing how to position oneself, the work does not work and the distance between individuals grows and invades the routine until it bursts: it is necessary to understand and position oneself. But empathy seems to have become an absurd ideal that never comes to fruition, a theory never put into practice (firm belief in being the most empathetic person in the world, always inside my head, we sympathize!).

To promote this work, every community (and utopically, every human relationship built in society, since *we are necessarily social*) sees the need to establish dynamics that facilitate this action towards its members, that is: listening, connection, forgiveness, understanding, change of perspective.

In the community that I am now in, I have been observing the tactics that enhance this desired empathy within the community's day-to-day life, such as the weekly exchange of news and status, where they share how each individual has felt throughout their lives that week, periodic feedback exposed and updated. And that through this tool, communication and active listening facilitate the development of the empathic sense. Group meditations, listening to bodies, group rituals to start the day..., these activities promote group listening and understanding of each of its members, as well as strengthening ties and promoting self-knowledge.