The State Of Empathy

The State Of Empathy

“The State Of Empathy” is a question, reflection, commentary an indictment, on who we are as individuals and a society! past, present and sadly it’s our future too! like a callous we have numbed and dumbed down ourselves to the point that our very humanity and our environment is endangered and we are like the frog in slow boiling water, believing in our own propaganda – we are on the top of the endangered species list and don’t know it, unless we take back our empathy our future! more at more at about

There is a lot we can learn from “Emperor”s New Clothes” and in my work in progress doc since 911 “Who’s Wearing the Emperor’s New Clothes” If So many people believe in something how can it be wrong! which ask the question “what is not propaganda?” and looks at the power of fear, the fear of powers and our biggest fear is the fear of not belonging – belonging and going along to get along even though we know its very very wrong! is I believe how top down managed dysfunctional society works – our institutions are built on fear and punishment and need to be transformed to empathy center – food for thought

“I was a bad person until I had empathy” Andy Dixon, – Andy should know, he had 27 long long years of an illegal life without parole sentence in prison and 5 of those years in solitary confinement, to think about – his statement about empathy has been marinated in me ever since 2012, and finally percolated to the top on April 15 2016 at a “State of Incarceration” conference. When it struck me like a bolt of lightening that the real title should have been “The State Of Empathy”

“The State Of Empathy” aside from a reflection its an indictment on who we are as individuals and as a society, and sadly our future unless we take back our empathy our future! – like a callous we have numbed and dumbed down ourselves to the point that our very humanity and our environment is endangered and we like the frog in slow boiling water continue believing in our own propaganda – like the frog we are on the top of the endangered species list – food for thought

Back story – my friend Andy Dixon, who is author of “Felonism” Hating in Plain Sight” with his wife Linda Polk, collaborator and subject in Ex Con With Convictions, (ExConWithConvictions.com) among other projects gets the credit of planting the seeds for “The State Of Empathy”, when he said to me, while we were driving cross country, on our way to what turned out to be, of all places, “Just Another Day In Paradise” (sign and title of doc in progress too) – in Paradise Truck Stop restaurant, in Rochester Indiana – but that is another story