The long path toward social awareness

(ES)

Doctors without Borders's campaign (*)"Pills against the pain of others" is an excellent example of what empathy means.

"In the first world, if you feel pain, there are pills to mitigate almost any pain. But ... What if it hurts you the pain of others, the pain of those who do not have pills to cure their suffering? "

Empathy is defined as the cognitive ability to perceive in a common context what another individual may feel, in other words, the mental and emotional identification of a subject with the mood of another.

The highest level of the Maslow Pyramid or hierarchy of human needs is the level of self-realization, which includes the higher needs, and through his satisfaction, there is a meaning to life through the development of a potential activity. According to Maslow, as the person can control their basic needs appear gradually higher needs, although not all individuals feel self-realization needs, because it is an individual achievement.

We feel a mixture of pain, anger, indignation and helplessness before the accumulation of injustices and atrocities we witness daily in our global world.

These feelings are just as tangible evidence of empathic ability of human beings. If we understand the solidarity and activism as a logical consequence of empathy, ie to the extent I share the pain and suffering of others, I act accordingly to try to mitigate it, the question is:

Need to act on behalf of the disadvantaged would not be in the highest level of Maslow's Pyramid as part of personal self-realization?

Why do people with their basic needs, security, affection and esteem covered do not have enough motivation to satisfy needs higher level?

Obviously you can not blame on the lack, or the excess of information about what is happening in the world. While excess, can cause boredom and insensitiveness on the viewer who prefers to avoid contact with a reality that hurts.

The motivation to self-realization requires a process of individual conquest longer than that required to meet other basic needs. And from that individual discovery, to reach a collective social awareness is a long way to go.

The sooner we follow the path that leads to social awareness, the sooner we can be proud of being the architects of a big change. The change that means understanding the ones that are not like me, sharing the pain of the suffering ones and give them comfort, fighting for Rights and Freedoms of those who lack of them, ultimately, build a more egalitarian world in distribution of opportunities and wealth.

(*) Only available in Spanish