Why Empathy Still Matters, Probably More Than Ever

What empathy really is

The Denial Of Empathy Is A Denial Of Humanity

"Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge." – Simon Sinek

I'm noticing a rash of memes and other social media communications treating empathy as inherently over-the-top. For example, I’ve read many arguments supporting Elon Musk's statement: “The fundamental weakness of Western Civilization is empathy.” In fairness, he also mentions that empathy needs to be balanced with rationality. No, duh. That’s fair. Anybody with any grasp of emotional intelligence knows rationality is one of many parts of the complete emotions package. But rationality is no substitute for empathy—empathy is its own special thing.

But is empathy, as Musk says, the fundamental weakness? It’s not a weakness. It’s the weakness. Even while Musk claims he’s talking about balance, he’s not. Using the definite article before fundamental weakness suggests a particular focus on empathy as something exclusive and dominant compared t…