The Cure For The Un-Common World

I just witnessed thought-provoking lecture and real time illustration from the mind of Matthew Taylor, of England’s Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA). The topic explored the meaning of 21^st century enlightenment, which as you might imagine, transported me back to my college Humanities class. The discussion takes us through a retrospective of what factors led to the Enlightenment period as we know it, it’s significance/impact and how our recent history may demand a new frame with which to view the world. He propositions us with the idea that empathy towards our fellow man could be the single most enlightened trait of all. Empathetic thinking towards our environment and  the people in it, he suggests, could be the ultimate solution to the challenges the world faces and will continue to face. Valuing and fostering this cognitive process, he argues, may very well be the solution to our 21st century challenges. He managed to distill the chaos in the world down to a simple and lovely trait we already posses. To think that every conflict, division and difference could be improved or handled more healthfully with a strong dose of empathy is intrinsic to our intuition as people. Taylor’s ability to articulate this is phenomenal. Please, put yourself in my shoes and explore ‘empathy’ as our culture’s WD-40.