Cruelty seems so strangely pervasive these days. You don’t have to look very hard to find examples of people being particularly terrible to each other. If you ignore the most clear and obvious acts in the wars and genocides and apartheid states (which you shouldn’t), you can find it in social media, in the news, in your medical insurance declarations (if you’re lucky enough to have it), in our laws, in the faces of marginalized communities, in our education system, in the plundering of the environment, or maybe at your sibling’s potluck dinner. The ‘purple salad’ was pretty abusive to my taste buds at least.
Cruelty obviously isn’t new, if you’ve ever read any history at all (or even just watched any Monty Python) that’s pretty obvious, but in the last ten years it seems like it’s particularly up in your face. Part of it may be the algorithm - Not just the algorithm of Facebook, X, and Tiktok but the grander algorithm of the Attention Economy, where the people that get heard are often the people with the worst takes. Cruel and coarse language is cheap to produce and distribute, and people use it to get clicks. Or votes. If a politician makes a constituent think a ‘lesser’ person is doing better than them, they might vote against funding the greater good. Hopefully as Humanists you’re not thinking about who is ‘lesser.’ :)
So what shall we do? Burn down the internet? Jab it with pitchforks until it stops? Not quite feasible at present. Alternatively, the AHA believes the antidote is sitting in our chromosomes right now, in that beautiful evolved social dynamic known as empathy. You don’t need a graduate level class to figure it out, it’s right there from the formative moment you realize other people are around and interact with each other. There’s nothing ‘broken’ about this instinct, maybe in the modern day it just needs a little boost. And while the attention economy continues on, the thing that captures your attention the MOST are things you DO or the acts of kindness you see in person, rather than the things you type or the rage bait you consume.
The AHA came up with the idea of the American Empathy Project to focus as many people on building empathy as possible on one date, May 2nd. They offered $100k worth of grants to organizations to put together projects on one of the themes - Food Over Cruelty, Conservation Over Cruelty, Affirmation Over Cruelty, Care Over Cruelty, Welcoming Over Cruelty, and Respect Over Cruelty. You can read all about it at https://www.americanempathyproject.org/ . Browse all the events taking place, it’s pretty inspiring.
The CNYHA applied for and was lucky enough to be awarded one of these $1000 grants, and we looked to some old friends and incredible organizers at We Rise Above The Streets who know how to help the needy both materially and emotionally. We chose to make hotel boxes, and we as a group will be boxing these up on May 2nd. We would really love it if you can join us!
Beyond that, we thought it was such a good idea, that we put together a GoFundMe to take more donations to make more boxes. The needs are always there, if you’re able, please consider contributing.
More importantly, maybe you can think about what you can do to build empathy in yourself and others, promote it as a common human goal, and firmly plant yourself in opposition to those that profit from cruelty in our times. And purple salad.