Compassion and Politics: Revolutionary or Evolutionary?

   Dipping into the ongoing stream of political pontificating that’s available on news channels and the Internet brings up a number of questions about the role of compassion in politics.

   The two mainstream political parties have tried to place dibs on compassion over the last decade from George Bush’s campaigning on Compassionate Conservatism to the Democrat’s ongoing calls for social justice and compassion for the nation’s disempowered citizens.

   But neither side seems to embrace the notion that compassion is a personal journey of acknowledging another being’s suffering and taking action to relieve that suffering. The GOP solution was to assign the job to faith communities (as if they’re not already doing as much as they can). The Dems propose greater expansions of public safety nets. But neither one really addresses what it takes to relieve suffering.

   Having compassion begins with acknowledging that another human being is suffering. The least compassionate response is: “Yeah, we all got troubles. Build a bridge and get over it.” The knee-jerk opposite response of: “Here, let me fix that”, however, isn’t necessarily the most compassionate response. Even if we were to “fix” all the social ills of poverty and alienation, the suffering wouldn’t magically disappear.

   Suffering is eased when another person cares.

   And that’s one major element that is missing from the current horserace for the GOP nomination: no one is saying: “I care that you are suffering, and it hurts me that you are in pain.” Not that I want to hear superficial platitudes like: “I feel your pain”. Although even superficial expressions of compassion are better than constant diatribes about how bad everything is and whose fault it is. All negativity serves to do is increase suffering.

   But what about caring? One thing I’ve noticed when I’ve felt suffering is: if somebody takes the time to listen to my worries, fears, and concerns, and expresses care for me as a fellow human being – somehow my suffering is eased. My problems aren’t gone, but my suffering is eased.

   Now I can already hear one of my Facebook friends saying, “But a politician’s job isn’t to listen to everyone’s problems.” It isn’t? I thought our elected representatives were elected to represent our interests in how we want to govern ourselves. Isn’t that the definition of a democratic form of government? Of the people, by the people, and for the people, right? (But that’s getting dangerously close to the fine line between cynicism and naiveté.)

   Taking a step back, I realize we can’t legislate compassion, nor would I want to. I can call upon my elected representatives to think about how their actions are or are not compassionate. I can try to plant seeds of compassion by writing about compassion. I can ask someone who’s being rude to me to please be nice to me. That’s strong compassion.

   I can also change the world. I can become aware of opportunities in my life to be a little more compassionate each day: Listen to one person I may have brushed off yesterday, smile at one person I would have ignored before, offer a kindness to one person I may not have noticed otherwise. It doesn’t change the whole world all at once, but it does change the world a little bit.

~*~

   For more information about compassion and its various manifestations, go to: www.CompassionSpace.com.