Empathy - from
Without empathy, there is little room for us to change our perspective.
We cannot experience in ourselves what we see in others. We cannot taste how others may experience their situation. We loose fluidity. We loose our ability to mature as human beings.
Empathy comes from allowing ourselves to stay with our own experiences. To hold them, allow them to unfold. And express them as appropriate.
When we do not allow ourselves to stay with our experiences, we cut ourselves off from our connection with others, humanity, ourselves, and our own potential for maturing as a human being...
We are stuck in rigidity. We live in fear for facing what we cut ourselves off from. We live in fear for being exposed. We stay with the narrow and comfortable. We may adopt ideologies that justify our rigidity.
George Bush, unfortunately, may be an example of the latter. See this essay taking a Jungian perspective on his way of being.
[Bush in Black and White - by Donald Williams]