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Why are we all shocked??....it's a classic case of man's inhumanity to man....we are all capable of it, depending on the circumstances....compassion and the lack of callousness is one of the crowning achievements of modern civilization....but we will never escape the basic reality of Darwin's Law....survival of the fittest.

I agree ................. but people in a hospital/police etc. are trained professionals who should have compassion and caring - otherwise don't be in that job. So it makes me wonder at the attitude - where does it come from? Why is it perpetuated and condoned ?

Wih big institutions, comes power....with power comes arrogance....society is cruel.....those who are poorer, darker, dumber, weaker,....will always be considered "less worthy"....now you can institutionalize compassion, but the basic human prejudices will always be there. Modern Society is just a means to enforce compassion and equality on us by rule of law.....but the law of the jungle is just under the surface....JMO

So make a big roar and you'll get some action! I remember being rushed to the emergency by my daughter and her boyfriend (I was bleeding internally and ended up getting two transfusions).... when I got there I could barely stand for more than a few moments and the nurse told me to go sit down ............ well I lost more blood in a big gush and my daughter started screaming to get some help ........ I was then promptly brought into treatment - where I then had to wait hours before being operated on. Such needless suffering because of insufficient care and staff.

Exactly my point.....shouting, drawing attention to yourself, and demanding service will get attention.....and hopefully service, in an emergency. A lot of the weak, poor, sick etc etc don't have the strength, will-power or confidence to do that.....just another Law of the Jungle. Equality is not a natural phenomenon, it is a modern human concept.

Golden words !! I hadnt ever seen it in this light .

Well, I'm not a history buff, but isn't that why the French Revolution was one of the greatest, and unusual events in history...?

We are back to the pre-conceived notions and stigma attached to mental illness I believe, and this is a typical case of how so-called "ordinary" people percieve and deal with people with mental illnesses, even people assigned to care for them.

No one seems to understand that mental illness can happen to anyone at any time and that this scenario could be them. Some people just can't put themselves in the shoes of people they don't understand.

If empathy doesn't exist, then sympathy is very difficult.

But empathy is learned, it is not a given....

True. It comes from experience. So are we sheltering people to much from the realities of life? Are there no opportunities any more from them to learn empathy?

To learn, we need to suffer....in affluent western societies, we don't suffer anymore....so we become stupid again.....

hmmm true .. i can follow you around and learn a lot me thinks.

Actually....I've learnt more from you...!!

you have ? i mean .. Thankyou thats like a big BIG compliment ..

but ..

Maybe the suffering is just of a different kind...ie: not getting the right designer handbag and such.......

How people perceive suffering differs I think.

Essentially I am agreeing with you.

There is less real pain, lives are not threatened by violence in childhood like it was, punishment is not consistant, so no lessons learned, things like that?

Parenting is gone to hell or just gone, in first world countries due to both parents working or striving for more things or money or the like?

Combinations of all of these maybe?

I think it is a spiritual thing. (Here we go with that word again).

My definition is that if it doesn't hurt your soul (or whatever word you want to use for soul), then no lesson learned. Only on that level does it prick the concience, and you need concience for empathy.

I agree....but the paradigm also works on a very basic level....you touch fire, you hurt, you learn not to stick your hand in the fire....I have observed that people only change when they have to....when the discomfort or pain of not changing becomes more than the fear of having to change....

...and that is why the fundamental thinking behind the welfare state is flawed.....if you make people too comfortable, they lack the motivation to change. The motivation to get out of bed in the morning is fueled by fear of pain....of the consequences of not doing so....JMO

Can't find fault with your thinking there either......

So you think that lack of empathy comes from not wanting to change because of comfort zones?

Empathy is learned by pain and suffering, and observing the same symptoms in others.....lack of empathy is endemic to the modern world, because in the old world, empathy was learnt by hard experience...you learnt from the guys in the next teepee that they were both an obligation (a burden), and a support system (a benefit) in times of your need...In the modern world, the support system is provided by anonymous people, the welfare department, trash collection, tram drivers, doctors..etc. The balance between selfishness and obligation has been fractured by simply paying off your debt to society (taxes)...which is as impersonal as you can get. We should not be surprised at the lack of empathy in the modern world...

I agree with that principle too, but surely it is learned long before that........in early childhood?