Genuine Compassion

We hear a lot about compassion nowadays.  Liberals are supposed to have it, whereas conservatives are supposedly devoid of it.  Theoretically, the former want to help the little guy; whereas the latter are intent on exploiting the vulnerable so that they can line their own pockets.

The problem is that genuine compassion is harder to bestow than it is to express.  People may effortlessly brag about how caring they are, but it is an altogether different matter to behave in a caring fashion.  Words are cheap; while actions are far more demanding.

Years ago, when I worked in a psychiatric hospital, I watched a succession of earnest young women begin work as helping professionals.  They were convinced that they had so much love in their hearts that if they shared this with their patients, these troubled souls were sure to improve.

But then they hit the reality wall.  Schizophrenics and other psychotics are, it turns out, difficult to reach.  Their mental problems are so severe that they build barriers between themselves and the outside world.  This means that love cannot always break through.

This was not only frustrating, but it threatened the self-images of naive helpers.  If the love they proffered was not effective, then they were not effective.  As a result, most left to pursue more rewarding careers.  Only those whose compassion was made of stronger stuff were able to stick it out.

So let’s perform a thought experiment.  Imagine that you are delegated to help a starving person and you feed him poison.  Are you compassionate if you keep feeding him this despite the evidence it is killing him?

If this sounds far-fetched, imagine that you have been delegated to help a poor person.  Now further imagine that the assistance you provide makes her poorer and less happy.  Although you are furnishing monetary assistance, her living conditions deteriorate and her mental health suffers.

Are you compassionate?  You may be attempting to be helpful, but are you constructive?  If, in seeking to be compassionate, you do harm and do not desist despite indications of injury, do you care about the person you are purportedly assisting?

Doesn’t genuine compassion imply that a person is concerned with the consequences of particular interventions?  Doesn’t it also mean that a person will continue to provide authentic help, over long periods of time, despite the resistance encountered?

Sympathy, on its own, is not sufficient to be lauded as compassionate.  Neither is empathy that is unaccompanied by effective action.  Merely feeling another’s pain is not benevolent.  It may make a person feel morally superior, but does not contribute to concrete improvements.

The reason for this excursion into the nature of compassion is not to make a linguistic point.  It is rather to help us understand that political programs intended to help the poor are not compassionate if they do not help the poor.  If they keep the disadvantaged destitute and increase their dependency, they are, in fact, unkind.

To repeat, consequences matter.  If a healthcare program does not improve the health of the nation, it is not compassionate.  If giving people free food does not enhance their nutrition, it is not compassionate.  If changes to the criminal justice system do not reduce crime or alternations in the school system do not advance education, they are not compassionate.

Self-congratulatory speeches are no substitute for genuine help.  Neither are vituperative recriminations directed at those who champion alternate social strategies.  People who care, whatever their ideological preferences, must monitor the impact of their interventions.

Too often people allow their objectives to get ahead of their accomplishments.  Just because they believe that a particular form of assistance will have the desired benefit does not ensure that it will.  There is, as they say, many a slip betwixt cup and lip.

Genuine compassion is more than a feeling.  It is more than an attitude.  Genuine compassion implies authentic assistance.  It is about what is done for the person helped and not the emotional gratification of the helper.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University