Rob Kall has written on the psychopathic behaviors that seem to permeate our global economy and plunder the world's resources. Relatedness and empathy are the social vaccines against plunder and predatory behavior. Watch these RSA videos to see how we might foster a 21st Century Enlightenment.

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Susan Lee Schwartz gave me a heads-up about a perceptive and thought provoking video animation produced by RSA titled "21^st Century Enlightenment" by Matthew Taylor. When I went to the site I was delighted to find not just one, but several of these very tightly written essays that all point to empathy as the key to human progress in this century. Each is a video presentation where a speaker presents an essay as a graphic artist illustrates it on a white board (graphic recording). The visual helps one to grasp these fast paced expositions.

Rob Kall has written on the psychopathic behaviors that seem to permeate our global economy and plunder the world's resources. Clinically identified psychopaths are self-centered and lack empathy for others -- traits that foster destructive behaviors that disregard the wellbeing of others. At the extreme end of the spectrum, psychopathic killers take lives without conscience. At the opposite end of the scale, many of us would be surprised to find our own personal behaviors represented. Were we all to have well developed empathy, perhaps we would not be so divided and adversarial in politics, religion, and ethnicity.

Another excellent RSA animation titled "Age of Outrospection" by Roman Krznaric offers nuanced insight into the nature of empathy in our present time. It is relatedness that fosters empathy, and vice-versa. Our embrace of the relatedness of all humanity fosters stewardship of humanity and the planet.

Yet another of the RSA videos is titled "The Empathetic Civilization" by Jeremy Rifkin . Rifkin asserts that most primates are "soft wired" to neurologically mirror things they observe happening to others as their own experience. An example would be the creepy feeling you get when you see a bug crawling on someone else's sleeve. He advocates that we exploit these natural empathetic tendencies to prepare the groundwork for an empathetic society.

Our circumstances on this planet are changing at an accelerating rate. When I was born in 1939 the world population was just over 2 billion, when I turned twenty-one it had grown to three billion, and now it is over six billion. Climate change, scarcity of basics like clean air and water, and the concentration of wealth and power among a few individuals and corporations all herald the urgent need to foster empathy and relatedness.

These videos will get you thinking, and will give you a frame for evaluating political "-isms" like individualism, libertarianism, conservatism, and liberalism. The RSA has adopted "21^st Century Enlightenment" as their banner or tag line. Maybe we all should.

Authors Website: http://rbshreve.com

Authors Bio:

Richmond Shreve is a retired business executive whose careers began in electronics (USN) and broadcasting in the 1960s. Over the years he has maintained a hobby interest in amateur radio, and the audio-visual arts while working in sales and marketing. For the last thirty years he was co-owner and CEO of the Middlebrook Crossroads business park (Edmar Corporation) in Bridgewater, NJ. He holds a lifetime FCC Second Class Commercial license, and an amateur radio General Class license (W2EMU). In 2012 Richmond retired from instructing sports car owners in high performance driving techniques at major tracks including NJ Motorsports Park, Watkins Glen, and Summit Point. He is the author and publisher of the Instructor Candidate Manual used by BMWCCA and other car clubs to train their on-track instructors.

Prior to moving to Newtown,PA, he volunteered as chief engineer of WCFA the Cape May, NJ community radio station as well as working as a gaffer on the Cape May Film Festival technical crew, a driver/engineer in the Cape May Point Volunteer Fire Company, served as its Treasurer and as Treasurer of its Firemen's Relief Association. He edited and printed the Cape May Point Taxpayer's Association Newsletter.

As a computer power user, graphic artist, photographer, and website designer he helps nonprofits build and maintain web sites. He is a fromer Vestry member of the Episcopal Church of the Advent.
Richmond is a citizen journalist and former Senior Editor at OpEdNews.com, a progressive news and opinion site on the internet.

Richmond lives with his wife Marguerite Chandler in Newtown, PA wher he continues to write essays ad short fiction. They travel extensively with their fifth wheel RV.

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Books:
Lost River Anthology (Amazon.com)
Instructor Candidate Manual (LuLu.com)