One of the greatest gifts of our humanity is compassion, to give it, to share it, and to receive it.
'A culture in which compassion is a prevailing value allows individuals to flourish and bring their talents and gifts to the communities in which they live. Unanticipated possibilities emerge, presenting fresh ways of addressing what previously appeared to be insoluble problems. Hearts are lifted. The case for hope is more strongly made. And as the people who work in this way begin to change the world immediately around them, so too, the wider world beyond begins to change.'- The Compassion Project
'A touching moment shared between a young girl and her elder companion, symbolizing the bond of love and care across generations. Their hands intertwined reflect a story of connection and mutual support, highlighting the beauty found in simplicity and compassion.'Image: Thachamon Muenaksorn
The "Forgetting" of Humanity and Goodness
Despite the fact that millions of people around the world still remember what it means to be good and what it means to be human, ensuring that humanity and goodness endure, tragically, at the same time, this cannot be said about many others, desensitised and indifferent to, as well as intolerant of ‘others’
The Scary Truth About Our Compassion Fatigue
N.B. The rot started in the early 1980s, when the world falling under the spell of Thatcher and Reagan was stupefied with neoliberalism, a false ideology, devoid of any humanity or values, and solely powered by liberalisation, privatisation, deregulation, marketisation and mass sell-offs, over flavored and spiced by other harmful ingredients such as individualism, selfishness, narcissism, greed, gluttony and lust. Then, everything began to fall apart, everything and anything became monetised, devalued and debased, including love, kindness, compassion, empathy, ethics, morality, spirituality, friendship, humanity,..., everything. Everything which we had valued and considered precious and priceless, everything that we had thought were the foundation of our lives, the core of our existence, that had made us human, they all became more and more meaningless. We got to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. More on this later, when and where I will attempt to explain how we may change the neoliberal economics to be good again and thus, empower ourselves to turn the world into a Global Compassion Project.
THIS IS THE WEB OF LIFE: We’re all in this together
And what cements our survival and flourishing is our humanity and compassion
How can the world regain its moral and spiritual compass? Don’t give up on compassion
‘Human beings are like parts of a body
Created from the same essence
When one part is hurt and in pain,
The others cannot remain in peace and be quiet.
If the misery of others leaves you indifferent
And with no feelings of sorrow,
You cannot be called a human being.’-Sa’di, the Persian sage and poet
The world is languishing in pain and anxiety. This is the age of lies and cruelty, where many regions of the world, if not all, are ravaged by poverty, inequality, injustice, hunger, war, environmental degradation and savagery against mother nature and people, one way or other, in the process we have devalued our existence and our humanity.
In the face of this calamity, the timeless question is- what can we, as individuals and also collectively do? My answer is simple: Don’t give up on compassion.
Constant exposure to violent news, 24/7, depicting death, destruction, pain and suffering, the world over, bringing the tragic events into our sitting rooms or the mobile devices, on the palm of our hands, has fundamentally altered how we consume, process, and react to disasters, conflicts, and traumatic events, with a major negative impact on our physical, mental and emotional health and well-being. Every minute of the day and night we are also the participants in what is happening in Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen, Iran and Palestine, to name but a few, from a long list, with horrific pictures, images, sounds of death and destruction, mainly on civilian population, aid workers. and more. We also see daily the pictures of bodies washed ashore from the seas of people dying to reach the places they see as the promised land.
I see all these. I cannot escape them, unless I decide to become a recluse and escape to a cave, I must see them, I have no choice. And, yes, I shiver to my core, unable to understand why the international community has chosen to remain impassive and uncaring seeing minute by minute, massacre by massacre, of people in Gaza or indeed in the towns and cities in Iran by their own government, killing them for the want of food and drinking water? I wonder and wonder, where our humanity has disappeared to? Why have we become numb to compassion?
All said and done, let us all come together and Make Compassion Great Again(MCGA)
Without compassion we are all living on the edge, on the shifting sands.
‘Ubuntu’: ‘I am because you are’
‘...my humanity is caught up in yours, for we can only be human together’-Desmond Tutu
‘Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to help the physical, mental, or emotional pains of another and themselves. Compassion is often regarded as having sensitivity, an emotional aspect to suffering, though when based on cerebral notions such as fairness, justice, and interdependence, it may be considered rational in nature and its application understood as an activity also based on sound judgment. The etymology of "compassion" is Latin, meaning "co-suffering." Compassion involves "feeling for another" and is a precursor to empathy, the "feeling as another" capacity for better person centered acts of active compassion; in common parlance, active compassion is the desire to alleviate another's suffering. Compassion involves allowing ourselves to be moved by suffering, and experiencing the motivation to help alleviate and prevent it. An act of compassion is defined by its helpfulness. Qualities of compassion are patience and wisdom; kindness and perseverance; warmth and resolve. It is often, though not inevitably, the key component in what manifests in the social context as altruism…’ -Wikipedia
To shed light on how we may (MCDA) to enable us to make a better world, I can do no better than revisiting a few of my past Blogs:
The Compassion Project: A case for hope and humankindness from the town that beat loneliness
– 25 June 2020 Julian Abel and Lindsay Clarke.-Photo: AMAZON
'It could... be one of the most dramatic medical breakthroughs of recent decades. It could transform treatment regimes, save lives, and save health services a fortune. Is it a drug? A device? A surgical procedure? No, it's a newfangled intervention called community.' George Monbiot,The Guardian
'Across the country, general hospital admissions are on the rise. But in a small town in rural England, thanks to the simple introduction of kindness and compassion, that trend has been reversed. And what this town achieved, we can all adopt in our own lives to powerful effect. Through daily mindful acts of care we are capable of changing things for the better, both inside ourselves and for the world around us.
‘Frome in Somerset isn't special. It could be any town; it could be your town. And yet the people who live there have a story to tell about the simple, ground-shaking power of compassion. If it came in tablet form, it would be hailed as a wonder of modern medicine. By contrast, it's entirely free but offers heartening evidence that when human beings make time for each other, the beneficial effects go far beyond the reach of naïve optimism...'-This is How to Make the World Great Again: The Compassion Project
COMPASSION IS THE BEST MEDICINE*
Photo:RCNi
Julian Abel and Lindsay Clarke reflect on a successful health and welfare project that has cut hospital admissions by strengthening community.
‘Medical practitioners have long been troubled by a debilitating sequence of events that commonly occurs when patients fall sick. The illness causes fatigue. Fatigue affects mobility, with an accompanying decline in both the energy and motivation to leave the house. The will to do such domestic tasks as cooking and cleaning weakens. So, too, the readiness to drive and go about the business of making a living. Such inertia leads to social isolation and, with it, a diminishing sense of self-worth. In such depleted circumstances one’s sense of identity begins to blur. Soon one may begin to wonder whether there’s any point remaining on this Earth...'-Continue to read
A MANIFESTO FOR COMPASSIONATE COMMUNITIES
Illustration by Naomi Wilkinson
‘This manifesto is a call to all people. Recognising compassion as a fundamental human quality present in all of us, either as a potential or in various stages of realisation, it is a call for the creation of more Compassionate Communities.
We all care for our friends and family. We freely offer kindness and help to neighbours and strangers in times of trouble, and such care is the basis for friendship and trust. Without this generosity of heart any degree of humane society would simply not be possible. Yet increasingly, across the world, we see societies dominated by greed, envy, intolerance, violence, repression and fear. Such developments reflect a failure of compassion and emotional literacy, both at the individual level and in organised group and state activity...'-Continue to read
And in conclusion see the links below on how we may change the neoliberal economics to be good again and thus, empower ourselves to turn the world into a Global Compassion Project;
An alternative economics to the failing and dying neoliberal house of cards
Telling a different Story- Exploring the intersections of economics, spirituality, moral sentiments, and humanity
Modern Economics is Melting Down
Illustration by Jon Berkerly
On our Way to Wealth, Health and Happiness with a Transformative Economics
Economics and Me: How to be Human in an otherwise Economistic World
I am a storyteller academic economist and I have a story to tell
I am an Economist, a Storyteller and Activist with a Dream- Co-Creating a Better Economics
Moral Sentiments to Transform Economics
These are what I have learned from 45 years of teaching economics
Economics and What it Means to Be Human
Make Economics ‘Kind’ and Build a Better World
Make Economics 'People's Economics' and Build a Better World
Make Economics ‘A Thing of Beauty’ and Build a Better World
My Economics and Business Educators’ Oath: My Promise to My Students
Wisdom and the Well-Rounded Life: What Is a University?
Finally, in the wise words of Hafez, the Persian sage, poet, and philosopher of love, we must not despair, but walk on. We must change and dismantle the house of neoliberal economics, and replace it with our compassionate economics in the interest of the greater good. We need to make compassion great again. We need to turn our world into a global compassion project. That is how we fight the current cruel dark forces that like hyenas have amassed all over the world. We fight them with our light of hope and strength of our moral and spiritual character, something that they do not have.