Do Americans feel empathy?

[karelpietertje]

Seeing a thread by BigBallinStallin and this , I wonder how many of you, and specifically americans, sympathize with the Japanese people in light of recent/current events, and if not, why.
So:

Do you sympathize with the Japanese disaster victims?

[jimboston]

The vast majority of Americans feel empathy towards our fellow humans.

The US gov't and/or the the people of the US donate more time, money, and goods to people in need all over the world, than any other country. (I am talking both gov't donations and private donations.)

We recognize the fact that we are blessed to have been born here and as such have a "duty" to help others.

Two or three reasons why you see lot's of negative and wise-ass comments here.

1) We (the people of the US) are always expected to step up first and to help most. I think we are generally OK with this (for the most part... I know many would disagree). That said... our generosity and compassion is rarely if ever acknowledged. We are maligned by many in the world. It gets to us.

2) You will rarely get straight answers / comments from people here in CC forums. There are some exceptions, but most enjoy being wise-asses.

3) Speaking for myself and where I come from... it's typical to be a smart-ass on one hand, be snarky and say something silly... while actually doing the right thing on the other. I think this is fairly common behavior for many in the US. At least amongst my friends. We value actions more than words and we expect wise-ass comments. We only are wise-asses to those we love.

[pimpdave]

The US gov't and/or the the people of the US donate more time, money, and goods to people in need all over the world, than any other country. (I am talking both gov't donations and private donations.

No we don't. Other nations spend more by percent of GDP than we do. We're just the most rich, so even though we give a much lower percentage, that's still bigger.

Remember that parable Jesus told about the woman giving up tithe versus the Pharisees.




BOOM ROASTED.

[Army of GOD]

Hahahaha karel, those are horrible representatives on the US. Of course I feel empathetic. Those people that are like "dat's wut you git fer Perl Harbour!!" are what we in the business like to call "fucking morons".

[HapSmo19]

I can sympathize with the earthquake victims.

As far as the tsunami victims go...(stupidity?). I live about 60 miles from the ocean but I live near the river with a string of dams above me. If we have any kind of quake here, my family has evacuation plans that involve getting the f*ck up the 500ft hill about a half mile away. Homey aint going out like that.

Then there's the nuke problem. How the f*ck does a country with their history of quakes/tsunamis not go the extra ten-million miles to insure they can shut down their reactors safely?

The plugs didn't fit? WHAT?!!!

[KoolBak]

What gets me the most is how you expect to ask if 307 Million unique individuals "feel" something.....gonna be one hell of a poll

[rdsrds2120]

Hahahaha karel, those are horrible representatives on the US. Of course I feel empathetic. Those people that are like "dat's wut you git fer Perl Harbour!!" are what we in the business like to call "fucking morons".

Yeah, this. I don't ever hold a whole system of people that weren't even involved in something responsible. If my grandpa was killed by a Vietnamese in the Vietnam war, I wouldn't hold it against my Vietnamese friends for something THEY didn't do. Blind hatred of a group of people based on nationality/origin is just as blind as racism, homophobia, sexism, etc.

-rd

[frankiebee]

The US gov't and/or the the people of the US donate more time, money, and goods to people in need all over the world, than any other country. (I am talking both gov't donations and private donations.)

No, just no.
A rich king gives a bread to a poor guy. Next, a poor guy gives away half his bread to an other poor guy.

Who gave away more ?

[Army of GOD]

The US gov't and/or the the people of the US donate more time, money, and goods to people in need all over the world, than any other country. (I am talking both gov't donations and private donations.)

No, just no.
A rich king gives a bread to a poor guy. Next, a poor guy gives away half his bread to an other poor guy.

Who gave away more ?

You're assuming the rich king ONLY gives bread to one guy, which is unlikely. If he's generous (which is implied by his giving of the bread), he'd make sure the lot of his citizens are fed.

[Woodruff]

Seeing a thread by BigBallinStallin and this , I wonder how many of you, and specifically americans, sympathize with the Japanese people in light of recent/current events, and if not, why.
So:
Do you sympathize with the Japanese disaster victims?

I believe the vast majority of Americans do empathize with the Japanese. I just think unfortunately that for the majority of us, our attention span won't really allow it to last long enough to make a significant difference.

I absolutely empathize, having lived through Hurricane Katrina (which this makes look like a resort trip).

[oVo]

The USA has had it's share of disasters... earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tornadoes, etc. to easily empathize with the horrific destruction in Japan. The speed and extent of this quake/tsunami disaster is still unbelievable in the sheer magnitude of the event. People in the USA can easily identify with and feel empathy for the people affected by this tragedy.

HapSmo, The alarm is sounded, you don't know what's happened, how far away it is or the scale of the danger. How quick can you gather your family and what distance can you navigate in 10 minutes?

The more that is known about this Japan earthquake/tsunami and the events that followed in quick succession, the more unbelievable it is. Seeing entire communities where thousands of people lived the day before leveled and seaport cityscapes sprinkled with giant tuna boats is totally surreal.

The earthquake has now been rated a 9 (1000 times more powerful than the quake that struck Haiti), the entire island of Japan moved east, the axis of the Earth changed and the actual length of the day was shortened a millisecond.

[BigBallinStalin]

Who here doesn't know that there's a difference between empathy and sympathy?

[HapSmo19]

HapSmo, The alarm is sounded, you don't know what's happened, how far away it is or the scale of the danger. How quick can you gather your family and what distance can you navigate in 10 minutes?

I know. Lots of variables and some would never get out for one reason or another.
Where did you hear 10 minutes? I thought it was more like an hour+.

[HapSmo19]

Who here doesn't know that there's a difference between empathy and sympathy?

Oops.

[BigBallinStalin]

If the OP cared to be honest, he should change the 3rd option to "No, because those who lost their lives accepted the risks involved in living in a disaster-prone area."

[No Risk No Fun]

I'd say most of us feel empathy, just look at what people on youtube are doing about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nkTqNu5ue8&feature=feedlik
‎"thousands of people...probably hundreds"

But in all serious, yes. It must be tough to just have experienced the most costly natural disaster of all time and anyone who thinks Japan deserved it should feel horrible. It's not like we still hate England because of the colonial days. Besides, wasn't dropping two atomic bombs enough "revenge" for the Pearl Harbor excuse?

[jimboston]

The US gov't and/or the the people of the US donate more time, money, and goods to people in need all over the world, than any other country. (I am talking both gov't donations and private donations.

No we don't. Other nations spend more by percent of GDP than we do. We're just the most rich, so even though we give a much lower percentage, that's still bigger.

Remember that parable Jesus told about the woman giving up tithe versus the Pharisees.




BOOM ROASTED.

Hence we give more than any other nation.

So um... I'm right.

BTW... If you read my post, you'll notice that I mentioned the fact that we (generally) understand we are lucky (i.e. Rich) and understand we need to step up because of this.

[jimboston]

The US gov't and/or the the people of the US donate more time, money, and goods to people in need all over the world, than any other country. (I am talking both gov't donations and private donations.)

No, just no.
A rich king gives a bread to a poor guy. Next, a poor guy gives away half his bread to an other poor guy.

Who gave away more ?

The rich king gave more.

The poor guy was more generous.

-----

Perhaps the rich king could have given away even more, I don't know.
(I've never audited his books, his castle may be mortgaged to the hilt like the US is.)

If I were the poor guy though I would thank the king, because even though he could have (maybe) given more, that doesn't take away from the fact that he did give something. He gave more than all the other rich King's in the world. He might be richer than they (Europe) and so he gives more than they do.

[jimboston]

Who here doesn't know that there's a difference between empathy and sympathy?

I assume the OP is not making the distinction.

That said, one can argue that you can't truly empathize with another person's plight without having lived through a similar experience. If that is true, I would guess only a small handful of Americans can empathize with what's happening in Japan right now.

[HapSmo19]

It's not like we still hate England because of the colonial days.

True. There are other, better reasons.

[HapSmo19]

I need to point out that the poll reflects, pretty well, the lack of US WWII veterans of the Pacific that post in this forum.

[Baron Von PWN]

I need to point out that the poll reflects, pretty well, the lack of US WWII veterans of the Pacific that post in this forum.

Really? you don't think two nukes would be enough for them to think, "ok we're square'

[HapSmo19]

..no

[paradise28]

I just gotta say, you need to give US veterans more credit. I can't speak for all of them, but the ones I've known would never even think of having a grudge that intense, let alone carrying it on for decades.

I do think many, many of us in America can grasp a piece of what Japan is suffering, and want to help. Not all are lucky enough to have more than they need, though. ("need" being a subjective term, naturally.)

[muy_thaiguy]

HapSmo, The alarm is sounded, you don't know what's happened, how far away it is or the scale of the danger. How quick can you gather your family and what distance can you navigate in 10 minutes?

I know. Lots of variables and some would never get out for one reason or another.
Where did you hear 10 minutes? I thought it was more like an hour+.

Where'd ou here and hour+? All I've heard is that some people had maybe 30 minutes tops. And that's being generous. Most had around 10-15 minutes to head to high ground. Unless there's a great big hill behind their house, most people were SOL.

That said, yes, the vast majority of Americans did feel empathy and sympathy towards the Japanese.