There was a woman named Hannah Arendt. She was a German born political scientist and philosopher. She was also Jewish. She lived during – and was forced to flee from – the Nazi persecution of the 1930’s and 40’s. She had the same front-row-seat-view of the decline of a once-respectable, once-proud civilization the Americans are suffering these days.

This is from Britannica; “Arendt viewed the growth of totalitarianism as the outcome of the disintegration of the traditional nation-state. She argued that totalitarian regimes, through their pursuit of raw political power and their neglect of material or utilitarian considerations, had revolutionized the social structure and made contemporary politics nearly impossible to predict.”

It sure feels as though we’re living in an age where contemporary politics are nearly impossible to predict, doesn’t it? It’s all part of the effort to create a totalitarian regime here, in the US, and a key part to all of THAT is the slow perversion of morality, a kind of moral stupidity that prides itself on being impervious to facts. And the key to THAT decline is found in the elimination or suppression of empathy.

‘Empathy’ is a noun. It means, “The ability to identify with or understand another’s situation or feelings.” In short, it’s the ability to effectively put oneself into another’s shoes. I suspect those who eventually became MAGA started with a distinct lack of empathy in the first place. It traces to a smaller-than-average Amygdala, a small, almond-shaped structure in the brain. Researchers have discovered, for example, that psychopathic serial killers have a small Amygdala that connects poorly with the frontal lobe. They literally can not imagine how their victims feel.

Obviously, I don’t mean to suggest that all of MAGA are serial killers. It takes more than JUST a small Amygdala to make a psychopath, but a small Amygdala is requisite to reduced empathy and the entire right-wing propaganda machine was built to eliminate any vestiges of empathy that might remain. Sadly, that propaganda has been VERY effective.

I seriously doubt I COULD become MAGA, today. I mean, even if I wanted to, which I don’t. I seriously doubt my ability to simply dismantle my morality so completely and all of a sudden. I mean, even MAGA didn’t do that. It took YEARS to make them the hard-hearted, and even hateful group they are today.

It literally started with word games. “Hey, let’s call the Inheritance Tax the ‘Death Tax!’ From there, they moved to lying, though they didn’t KNOW they were lying. They thought they were just playing the political game. The stories they told were for the greater good, right? Slowly, very slowly, they’ve been led, step by step, deeper down a rabbit hole of misinformation.

They became consumed by some VERY slick, VERY professional looking propaganda. Slowly, carefully, their fears became their guiding star. Whatever bigotry they harbored was enabled and enhanced and ultimately, approved. It didn’t happen quickly. It couldn’t have. But slowly, over time – 40 plus years, in fact – they’ve had whatever empathy they may once have enjoyed stolen from them.

The success of the would-be totalitarians is VERY dangerous to the United States and to the world, in general. The US has been the most powerful nation on Earth for 80 years. Now, we’re a huge toddler with a loaded gun. No, make that millions of loaded guns. And nukes. And all of it backed by “true believers,” unable to put themselves into the shoes of others.

It took a World War and some 60 million dead to stop the totalitarian regime Arendt was forced to flee, the Nazis, and nobody back then had the kind of weapons we have today. The policy called Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) used to be a warning in name. Now it seems to be a reality the world is hurtling toward with a rather insane abandon. Arendt had something to say about that. “The death of human empathy,” she wrote, “is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.”

For me, the most ironic part of the decline of empathy in our society is that the single largest group of people to lose sight of that aspect of the human condition are the people who call themselves Christians. They never even suspect that their callous attitudes about others run contrary to the most basic teaching of their ostensible leader. I mean Jesus, not Donny. They’re in lockstep with Donny.

Somewhere along the way, I sort of dropped the Ten Commandments as guiding rules. For one thing, there are really only five: don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, and don’t covet. The others are just some form of “You have to like me best” from their “jealous God.”

More importantly, those that DO speak to morality can all be summed up in ONE teaching of Jesus. “So then, in everything treat others the same way you want them to treat you, for this is [the essence of] the Law and the [writings of the] Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12, the Amplified Bible)

Treat them the way you want them to treat you. Now there’s a concept. If you don’t want to be lied to, don’t lie. If you don’t want to be stolen from, don’t steal. See? Simple. If you don’t want to be ripped from your home and packed off in the middle of the night, maybe don’t support that behavior. It’s a nice little rule and it doesn’t even require empathy. One can be as selfish as anything and it still applies. You know what you don’t want someone else to do to you. Don’t do it to them. Easy.

The loss of empathy in a person does NOT preclude sympathy in that person, and that may be a key. While they can’t successfully put themselves into someone else’s shoes, they still understand distress when they, or someone they care about, experiences some consequence or effect. Honestly, I expect they will experience a whole new set of consequences and/or effects in the very near future. What I don’t know is if they’ll ever make the connection between their suffering and who is doing the actual infliction of that suffering.

Their media tells them the perpetrator is… well, whomever they can point to that isn’t the actual perpetrator. More to the point, they WANT to believe they’re on the side of righteousness. Who doesn’t? But their desire to NOT be the bad guy in this process may well prevent them from ever understanding or acknowledging their role as useful tools to the overthrow.

Those of us who never succumbed to the MAGA misinformation are all (foolishly, I fear) waiting for a cowboy on a white horse or a knight in shining armor to come in and rescue us. I don’t see any on the horizon. This is actually happening, whether we like it or not.

I don’t agree with everything Arendt has written or said, but I think she hit the nail on the head with her warning, “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.”

I can see how easily we, the people, might fall into barbarism from where we are. Many already have. So it’s important for those of us still capable of empathy to hang on to it. Cling to it. Hold it close. The temptation will be there to disregard first the feelings of MAGA, then the person as a whole. It might seem the only way to cope, cut them off.

But YOUR empathy has to be the example. As a bonus, you MAY find that your empathy helps you cope with their LACK of empathy. Talk with them, but not about abstract concepts or people they don’t know. Share your experiences, how things affect YOU. Those are things they can relate to.

Empathy didn’t die of natural causes in this once-great nation. It was murdered. Slowly, steadily. Fortunately, not for everyone. We may be destined to barbarism. But maybe, just maybe, we can change the course. Set the example. Maybe OUR empathy will inspire a resurrection of empathy in someone else, one moment at a time, in one person at a time where it has been snuffed out. Empathy isn’t extinct so long as it exists in even one person, and it only takes a spark to get a fire going…