The Lack of Empathy

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

I’ve been struggling these past months to cope with the ever-swelling horrors of the Trump administration. It’s increasingly difficult to wrap my head around the staggering levels of corruption, viciousness, and pure evil practiced by apparent human beings leading our government. Not to mention, the convivial corruption, viciousness, and pure evil practiced by people seemingly enraptured by the cult of trump.

How in the fuck did we get here?

Gratuitous Nazi References

I’m going to invoke Godwin’s LawGodwin's LawStates that 'as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches.' It highlights the tendency for arguments to escalate and involve Nazi comparisons, often derailing the discussion. for the rest of this post. Because Trump isn’t Hitler even though he seemingly wants to be. But, his actions, and those of his cabinet appointees, and those of way too many people in positions of authority in this administration, resemble Germany’s 20th century Nazis.

One historical figure I’ve recently learned about is a former American psychologist Gustave Mark Gilbert (aka: G. W. Gilbert). After World War II the Allies established the Nuremberg Trials to hold military and civilian leaders of the Nazi regime accountable for their war crimes. Charges against these figures included the extermination of civilian populations, widespread use of slave labor, looting occupied countries, and the maltreatment and murder of prisoners of war. G. M. Gilbert was the leading prison psychologist attending Germans going to trial. He had an unrivalled, firsthand opportunity to watch and question these Nazi war criminals. Gilbert was able to interview and become confidants to Nazis including Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Hans Frank, Oswald Pohl, Otto Ohlendorf, Rudolf Höss, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner.

Gilbert later wrote the book Nuremberg Diary, partially based on diaries he kept during these interviews. One quote from this book is particularly relevant to what we American’s are presently experiencing from our government. The quote:

I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I’ve come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy. – G. W. Gilbert

Examples

This quote, I think, best describes the character of Trump administration figures. How else to explain Elon Musk’s gleefully destroying USAIDUSAIDUnited States Agency for International Development. An agency of the United States government that was responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance., an agency responsible for keeping millions of people alive and reasonably healthy all over the world? Or OPMOPMOffice of Personnel Management. The U.S. federal agency that sets overall policy and guidance for all federal civil service personnel. director Russell Vought proudly stating, “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down … We want to put them in trauma.” 

Then we have DHSDHSDepartment of Homeland Security. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), The Border Patrol, and agencies responsible for federal law enforcement fall under DHS. Secretary Kristi Noem bouncing around the world cosplaying tactical military. She brags about throwing people into foreign gulags for life, for the “crime” of being in the U.S. without proper immigration documents. Which, by American law, not having “proper immigration documentation” is a misdemeanor equivalent to a fucking speeding ticket.

I see no reason to discuss Trump.

Lack of Empathy

Everyone in leadership roles in the Trump administration are evil. The people carrying out Trump’s policies are evil. Yes, these people are also opportunistic with personal agendas and wallowing in the heady feeling of unchecked power. But it is possible to exhibit these traits and still have empathy and not be evil. Gilbert’s description of evil as an absence of empathy is the best commentary of their actions.

How do we get back to being a nation that calls empathy one of our core values?

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