Mya Hankes
English 110 C-1
Professor Brod
October 12th
Paul Bloom’s piece, “Is Empathy Overrated”, provides creative points and examples to display how the concept of empathy has its major holes. Initially reading it I disagreed with Bloom’s ideas and believed that empathy is a very crucial emotion to have and understand. After reading this over and annotating, I realized that Bloom’s argument was actually very strong in being able to make me see the argument from another perspective. I understand the negatives behind empathy and how detrimental it can be to our society as a whole. The first point that Bloom makes is an analogy comparing empathy to spotlights, stating, “But spotlights have a narrow focus, and this is one problem with empathy. It does poorly in a world where there are many people in need and where the effects of one’s actions are diffuse, often delayed, and difficult to compute, a world in which an act that helps one person in the here and now can lead to greater suffering in the future” (Bloom 1). He argues that empathy is only able to highlight individuals and certain events at a time, it becomes impossible and worse when attempting to highlight groups. There are multiple tragedies occurring simultaneously and constantly around the world, it is extremely difficult to have empathy for all. I agree with this point in Bloom’s argument because you can only physically handle and process so much emotion, our brains naturally ignore some tragedies. Another point that Bloom makes is that humans select their empathy for others based on their comparison to ourselves. He explains that, “Empathy is a spotlight with a narrow focus; it shines brightly on those we love and gets dim for those who are different or strange” (Bloom 2). Bloom tries to explain that instinctively, we choose to empathize with those like ourselves. In my own opinion, I believe that empathy and what we look or act like should be divided. It depends on our personal morals in who we empathize with. When it comes to society as a whole, morals go out the window and it becomes based upon who is inherently superior. Lastly, Bloom argues that when acting on our empathy, we don’t consider the consequences. We think of the individual instead of the larger picture. Bloom uses an example of a girl who became ill from a vaccine program, if they stop the program 12 other children will die. This makes you realize that acting in empathy for that one girl will ultimately cause the suffering of a larger group. I agree with Bloom’s point and realize that it is something that I hadn’t previously thought about. Overall, I thought Bloom’s article was thought provoking and made me reconsider things I didn’t agree with prior.
