Study says college kids lack empathy

Despite the demonstrations on college campuses for feeding the poor and ending war, surveys have consistently come out branding them as lacking in empathy. This means they cannot put themselves in someone else’s place and feel the pain. This is troubling on two counts. One is the false pretenses many display in school showing concern for the less fortunate through demonstrations. Another is that if one cannot empathize with another, that person is liable to commit heinous acts in the future.

Many of the villains of history such as Hitler and Stalin have been analyzed over and over again. They come out as incapable of empathy. This leaves open the dilemma, if the students are just lacking in empathy or too many of them are incapable of having empathy. The second reason would be far more troubling for society.

If the college students are indeed wholly lacking in empathy, then are we to have more Wall Street meltdowns in our future? Where financiers have utter disregard for others, but desire so much money that it would take quite a while to spend. Should we fear more people moving up in society who advocate that terrible and heinous acts be committed against their fellow men?

Let us hope that future surveys show the changing nature of college kids in that they are becoming more empathetic. Better yet for the present surveys to have been mistaken in their assessment of the college kids. Only time will tell in what kind of society the college kids bring about in the future.