re: How empathetic do you think you are?

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Empathy has virtually nothing to do with politics. Politics simply determines nature of solution in response to empathetic cause

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You seem to be contradicting yourself. If a solution is based on response to an empathetic cause, how can you say empathy has no bearing on politics? If a person can empathize with a particular problem, they're more likely to want to use the government to address it. If a person can't empathize, they'll be inclined address a problem with tough love. I don't have much empathy for derelict parents. I wish the government would do more to hold them accountable.

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If a person can empathize with a particular problem, they're more likely to want to use the government to address it.

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the bolded part is not true, and it falls in line with

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Politics simply determines nature of solution in response to empathetic cause

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government is a type of solution. it is not the ONLY solution

I care very much for the people in my orb. Wife, family, friends, co-workers, etc.

If I read a story about some schmuck who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge because he went broke, I don't care at all. I don't care about society at large. I don't want society to care about me. I want society to leave me the hell alone.

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Two folks pass an alcoholic homeless man on the street as he's begging for $5 and something to drink. Both are highly empathetic. One hands the the poor fellow $5 and a pint of whiskey. The other hands him directions to an AA sponsored shelter and detox program.

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Let's take it a little further. Three people walk past an alcoholic homeless beggar. One shakes his head and keeps on walking. The second gives him money. The third brings him to an AA-sponsored shelter. Both #2 and #3 displayed empathy, but I would fall into the third category. Just telling him to go to a shelter isn't much different than walking past him IMO.

For the record, I've never given a beggar money outside of a convenience store or at a gas station, but occasionally, I have pumped a couple of bucks of gasoline into a car of soomeone who had run out of gas.

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If I read a story about some schmuck who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge because he went broke, I don't care at all. I don't care about society at large. I don't want society to care about me. I want society to leave me the hell alone.

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I think it's normal to be more emotional about someone who you have a personal connection to than someone who you don't. During the Iraq War, I wasn't any more affected by news of Americans getting killed than I was by news of Iraqis getting killed, but when I heard news that my co-worker's nephew had gotten killed, that did affect me.

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I am not particularly empathetic but its something I am working on.

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This describes me too.

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Charitable giving is far more empathetic. It's not forced.

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Absolutely agree. If you really care about other people, do something. Stop trying to force other people to do something.

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The hypo: "Dan, if you were with North Vietnam forces covering the war and they were about to ambush a US patrol and you had a way of warning the American troops without your North Vietnamese group knowing you did it....would you send out the secret warning and save American lives?"

Dan: "No."

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I assume that if a reporter is embedded with enemy troops, there are ground rules set about what can and can't be reported. Perhaps such a reporter should be criticized for agreeing to be embedded with enemy troops in the first place.

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Of course you can help those in immediate proximity to you on a micro level, but there are some types of help that its not practical for an individual to give. For example, how would an individual go about improving the quality of schools in a poor district?

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Volunteer.

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Let's take it a little further. Three people walk past an alcoholic homeless beggar.

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You can expand this to any number of iterations. If the homeless guy is in Moore, Oklahoma, maybe well-meaning police kill him while trying to obtain ID in order to move him to the shelter?

The point being, empathy drives a response to help. Political viewpoint determines what form that response will take.

One political mindset responds empathetically through expansion of dependency, the other responds through the enabling of independency. Both responses stem from similar empathy. However, each takes very different action based on political mindset.