Empathy

The controversy surrounding President Obama’s criteria for a Supreme Court selection, along with the controversial resulting pick in Sonya Sotomayor, has given me reason to put some thoughts together on the subject of empathy and its role in our society.

I find it interesting that Christian zealots are taught most vehemently to be empathetic, yet they, as conservatives, tend to be less politically empathetic than their liberal counterparts. This seems to be hypocrisy, but it is not.

The growing trend toward political empathy is a frightening one to me. What is empathy’s role in our society?

Empathy is, and must be, a personal emotion. Each member of society can and should be empathetic toward others in a worse situation than themselves. Government, however, must not! Justice, they say, is blind. Justice and empathy cannot be had together in a court of law. In Sunday School we learn that without a Mediator, justice and mercy together would be impossible. This is very true in civil law as well.

So what’s wrong with mercy? Well, the answer is simply that it robs justice, for the law demands repayment and just punishment. A church can be merciful, people can and should be empathetic. A government must only be just. Who is the government to be unjust in favor of one citizen as opposed to another? When a judge has any bias in judgment, one party is unfairly punished. What do circumstances have to do with justice? If we play the pity card and tug on the heart strings in order to make an unjust decision, we have lost our law. Any unfairness is unacceptable for a government. Not only is the constitution trampled by denying the protection of the rights of one citizen in favor of another, but we run the risk of inciting a emotional response that could result in riots, and even civil war. We cannot allow our law to be merely a guideline.

On that same note, legislation also cannot be based on empathy. Legislators must govern with cold hearts. This sounds cruel, and is a very unpopular view in modern culture. But it is absolutely correct and necessary for freedom. Legislation must be based on logic and logic alone. No emotion should enter any decision made by congress. For when we govern with empathy, we govern with inequality and bias.

For example, it is often said that the one has plenty, while the other has none, therefore it is just to take from the one and give to the other. There is nothing just about it. The possessions of one, if obtained legally, are earned with effort. There is nothing just about forcing one to forfeit the fruits of his or her labors for the benefit of the other. That is a form of slavery, and it is unacceptable. If the one chooses to give to the other, that is his or her prerogative.

This is easy to see from a strictly logical sense, but it becomes a cloudy issue when we allow emotion to enter the equation. It is sad to see one fail. But government with emotion always ends in favoritism and a loss of freedom. Logic demands that legislation must be for the good of all, or not at all. It must not be for the good of the chosen at the expense of the unchosen.

Empathy must be left to the hearts of the people, and must have no place in public service. If we continue down this road, our empathetic government will be the destruction of our country. Liberty and justice for some.