Compassion, indifference, and social evolution.
We live in an unprecedented hyper-communicative time, we can see and learn so much more than we have ever been able to before, watching injustice livestreamed from both oppressor and the oppressed, our bandwidth to understand the human condition right across the world has improved, and we have to deal with the inevitable misinformation that accompanies it all.
Humans can be loving and hurtful, compassionate and indifferent, what we’re all indoctrinated into has a huge impact on who we think we are and how we should treat others unlike us.
At the time of writing, many conflicts and immense suffering is underway, and in 2025 we can watch it all live, or presented to us in bite-sized chunks amidst a sea of light entertainment to numb us from the vicissitudes of life. We can see it all, whilst also showing the world who we are too.
What is interesting to witness is both the outpouring of compassion for those who suffer, and also the chilling indifference too, and both these responses are truly authentic, a reflection of who we are and where we are in the social evolution of what humanity is right now.
We are all part of different groups that are comprised of different genders, ethnicities, cultures, classes, religions, nationalities, political leanings etc, and those distinctions have provided a basis for our preferences, but they are not monoliths. Through sharing in spaces together, we learn about each other and the realities of our commonalities and of our conflicts.
The crimes of the past, and every crime that is committed right now cannot be reversed. Atonement becomes a laborious effort that guarantees a prolonged misery for a justice that will be a small salve and can never undo the pain of what has happened.
As we scramble to justify a moral and political position, and seek ones that might offer new solutions to old problems, where we are all going is being transformed at a primordial level that is either towards compassion or away from it, into an indifference that robs us of the higher potential of the human condition. Some truths are yet to be articulated in modern language, but the same phenomena plays out every generation. This is a manifestation of the yin and yang in people, and as that grows, we are transformed on an individual and societal level over time, under the same epochs of conflict and peace that present themselves through our actions as we all march to the divine beat of the cosmic drum.
I found this artwork by American artist Robert McCall and found it deeply inspiring. The resolution here won’t do it justice, but visit his website and zoom in, and the message it evokes is a vision of global human progress and unity into an exciting future. And that can happen for us, if we want it, but it depends on what kind of vision we nurture for ourselves as guardians of the planet and for the next generation.