I don’t know why I care so much, you know, I’ve begun thinking about how rare cognitive empathy and curiosity actually is. It’s been helpful to envision the human race back in their monkey-ish form, despite our fancy jobs and iPhones, survival is a shared drive. We go to work, make money to feed our families and keep them healthy… we turn a blind eye to others, use them as amusement, or even fight them off with aggression. Incongruous monkeys tapping at keyboards to make money, clumsy and bored, wondering why we feel so miserable.
Maybe I cant expect a monkey to really care for another monkey on the other side of the planet. If I showed a photo to a gorilla of a suffering baby gorilla, would the gorilla want to save it? Would he feel distress? It depends on whether he viewed the suffering gorilla as a friend or enemy.
So do we only empathise with our own tribes? Humans shy away from curiosity. We like our walls and self contained lives, perhaps it’s helpful to our own inner peace. We have built our own cages, in our own zoos. And we don’t like visitors.
You can’t force someone to care about others, I have learnt this the hard way. I can only encourage one to be more curious. Engage with the possibility that your life isn’t actually important, but can be through those you connect to.
I’d like to live in a world of more empathy, sharing lands and burdens. I don’t blame anyone for turning a blind eye to the atrocities on the news, my empathy and curiosity reaches to you too. You’re an evolved monkey trying to work an office job, I mean, you definitely have your own things to worry about.
But why not get curious? Don’t worry, your problems will still be there when you get back. And maybe they’ll feel slightly lighter by comparison.
