Yesterday on Twitter I saw a twit about a shooting with casualties in Mexico City, in a place called ‘Plaza Garibaldi’ which is a popular area amongst locals and tourists because there are mariachis playing all day, everyday, and throughout the night. The twit is about a video made by someone in Plaza Garibaldi right after the gunshots were fired. She made the video shocked by the apparent indifference from the people in the Plaza. At the beginning of the video, a small crowd can be seen gathered around what seems to be the crime scene, and again, with casualties. Then the camera shows the rest of the Plaza Garibaldi, were people can be seen drinking and inside bars like if nothing had happened. The maker of the video shares her shock and disbelief on the level of indifference towards such a dramatic event.
I actually saw the twit thanks to the re-twit of one of my contacts, whom commented on the “Sickening lack of empathy surely a key obstacle to change in Mexico.” And I couldn’t agree more.
For my research I focus on non-Western peacebuilding, customary conflict resolution and peace formation, in a hopeful search for local, sustainable peace practices and alternatives to the various and serious issues common among Latin-American countries. Special sensitivity toward cases where empathy and/or compassion feature prominently has been my goal from the start. I am not very far with my research, as I am in the early stages. However, I have been finding, very slowly and very carefully, clues to the past and pointers for the future, where empathy and compassion have been part or can be part of social-political realities and even institutions.
One of the ideas that I have found to be most disruptive, is the proposal of institutionalizing empathy and the reduction of fear. As things stand in the world, and given the current dominant economic system priorities, institutionalizing empathy sounds like a radical posture. However, if we think about it, it is a sensible idea, and probably, achievable.
There are a number of important reasons why empathy and compassion should be encouraged, at least at a personal level. Explorations on the social impact of conditions conducive for human flourishing is what I keep searching for, alongside my peacemaking and peace formation research.
In future posts I will discuss some of the reasons why empathy and compassion are important at a personal and social level, and will provide a very brief historical background of compassion within world politics.
Regarding the extremely dire situation in Mexico, I agree that we are submerged on a crisis, darker and deeper than many of us can admit. And it is precisely because of that, that we also have a precious opportunity for individual and social self-reflection and change; long lasting, profoundly felt, and radical change.
Self-Ethnography 