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Anti Intellectualism Is Killing America Summary

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The Need of Empathy In American Society

Suppose I was guilty of murdering my boyfriend, what would be your reaction? Would you reconsider the verdict? Would you show some compassion? Would you even try to understand my reason? If you answer yes, you are showing me what is called empathy. “Deepa Kodikal, spiritual adept, says, “Empathy is putting yourself in another’s shoes to find out what exactly that person is feeling or going through at the given time. It basically refers to being at a common wavelength with someone” (Bajaj). Empathy is our confirmation that we haven’t lost our humanity.
The act of empathy enables our society to share in another’s pain and make it almost impossible not to be involved in someone else problem. I do believe …show more content…

Niose uses the Charleston shooter, Dylan Roof, “who used races as a basis for hate and mass murder” as an example for such ignorance caused by anti-intellectualism. This horrific act of violence should give our society multiple perspectives on the situation. Instead of viewing what happened in Charleston as a horrific act by itself, Niose urges us to dig more deeply. If we can simply focus on trying to understand what could have provoked Roof’s behavior maybe those nine corpses would still be …show more content…

When he states, “many American seem to honestly believe that their country both invented and perfected the idea of freedom that the quality of life here far surpasses everywhere else in the world”. Niose fails to realize that American society is very individualized. We are only concerned about our well-being and if Roof decided that, as Noise states in his article, “used race as a basis for hate and mass murder”, that was his decision. Roof didn’t have to murder those innocent people, but he did because of his own selfish hatred even if he showed just a little empathy before pulling the trigger. It is true that American society is very individualized, yet we are so quick to dismiss others with our own theories as to why we should reason so we don’t get distract us from true mortality, the distinction between good and bad especially dealing with criminals such as Roof. If we could reconsider what would happen if we had, “an informed, engaged, and rationally thinking public” (Niose2) ignorance wouldn’t be our

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