Sympathy… is it good or bad?
The world is in chaos…
Lately I have been contemplating the entirely human quality known as ’sympathy.’
No other creature on earth has the evolutionary development to express such a frequency of being.
Sympathy… is it good or bad to be sympathetic?
Something to consider…
There are a couple of related qualities: ‘sympathy‘ and ‘empathy’. To have ‘empathy’… to be empathetic is to feel as if you have ‘walked a mile in someone’s shoes’ … you are acknowledging the feelings or experiences of another.
Whereas ’sympathy’ has an inbuilt quality of superiority attached to the action of giving ’sympathy’ or being sympathetic. You do not speak about sharing sympathy… one gives while the other receives… indicating an inherent lack of equality in the exchange.
I have met many people who play ‘the sympathy card’ to get by in life. (Make no mistake… it’s a manipulation). There are some who play it brilliantly. Not like a violin but rather, like a full orchestra… with breathtaking skill and some others can use it with the power of a sociopath.
For those of you who don’t know exactly what a ’sociopath’ is, it’s someone who feels none of the normal rules of human interaction apply to them (because they feel that their story is the most miserable of all and no one will ever understand their pain etc… and so on…). In their version of reality, there is the underlying beliefe that everyone has had it better than them so the “general public” is fair game…everyone can be used for their own ends with no sense of responsibility, gratitude or appreciation…or reciprocation.
In fact at the end, when it has become obvious this is a ‘dependent’, manipulative person rather than a responsible, talented ‘individual’ looking for a break …(they usually have a well refined/rehearsed attitude of pathetic-ness with that ‘deep unrecognized potential’…you feel sure you can help them reveal to the world!) Continue reading ‘Sympathy… is it good or bad?’ »
