Maybe we are using the wrong word?

It seems that the posts here reflect others reactions to pain as
empathy issues. Maybe it is just a lack of compassion?

This culture we live in is dominated by TV these days. Watching the Xmas
commercials is extremely unpleasant for me lately. It is the endless preoccupation with THINGS...violent video games, fancy plasma TVs, new cars, etc.

I remember when I was pregnant. There was a Maxwell house coffee commerical of a neighborhood helping a solitary elderly neighbor get a Xmas tree up (which she could not do herself). It was very touching, and even my husband was
commenting that "crying during commercials" is not going to sell much coffee.
I'd cry at the drop of a hat back then when pregnant.
There is an IAMs one of a cute puppy and little boy, with a voice over showing them both aging together...leading of course to the dog's demise.
The concept is that if you use IAMs your dog will live LONGER. Still the tears come for me.

I have been working with sick people for about 40yrs. I see other people move away physically from obviously sick patients. Then I read a book by EO Wilson, who coined "sociobiology". He believes that humans evolved with genes that contain Xenophobic traits. You see animals with this commonly. In a herd, they will sometimes shun or push out the weak, so the predators eat those and spare the healthy. You see small children stare and say "cruel" things to anyone who appears different. Crutches, canes, sometimes even eyeglasses.
It is Xenophobia that drives racial fear and racial hate. It is the holdover from evolution, to fear and avoid anything different..as a self preservation behavior.

I think alot of what we see here is really xenophobia. We think that this is a behavior that can be quickly changed with a few words in a sermon or some education. I don't think so.
It may be ingrained into the genes and will take an evolutionary time to
dwindle out. Xenophobic scenarios play out every day...everywhere.
Making laws may help instill some "fear" to not indulge in discriminatory behaviors publically, but people still have them, keep them secret in the home, and
it will take a LONG time to modify them.

What we see as lack of empathy may just be xenophobia of illness.

I got thrown off juries during one of my jury calls, just because I was using a cane then. I'll never forget the stares from the defendent and his lawyer, when doing the challenges. I guess they figured I was an old coot, ready for a fight..best get old coots off juries!