Why do we feel for others?

I recently saw a clip from Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece-Schindler’s List when the Ghetto was being cleared. The violence was realistic and graphic. It was well filmed and edited. The emotions on screen were excellently acted and conveyed too the audience. I have seen all of these qualities in other films that were in colour so therefore more “real” such as Blood Diamond and 21 Hours To Munich but none of the above disturbed me as much as Schindler’s List. I began to ask myself why this was the case. Surely a black and white film is less real than one that was made in colour?

This question led me to consider the title of this essay-why do we feel for others? I have based my essay on the ideas of two major philosophers: Hobbes and Rousseau. Many people believe that you cannot follow two different ideas but I disagree. Hobbes’ main idea was that humans are little more than animals who have slightly evolved beyond the stage of savagery. “The life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” (Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan). According to Hobbes, we had only evolved from animals to the extent that mankind could very easily slip back into savagery* and that “humanity” was only a thin layer that could be very easily abandoned. Humans only exist for themselves, and not others. This could be aptly proved by a story from Nazi concentration camps where guards were bribed too provide much-needed medicine for prisoners. Did they provide the medicine because of their consciences? Of course not. Because they wanted the extra money. A counter-argument could be that they accepted the money to make life easier and more pleasant for the people that they loved (?).

On the other hand, Rousseau believed that we had evolved to the point where we are completely “tamed” too the extent that we exist to help others, not ourselves. We are driven by empathy and the pain of seeing other humans in discomfort. In other words; the group before the individual.

I believe that we have evolved too the extent where on the whole, we put others before ourselves (an example being the family unit) but under extreme circumstances we revert back to self-preservation. Clear evidence for this is a horrifying story from the Holocaust that there was regrettably repeated. A trainfull of Jews arrive at a station. They have been transported there in
Cattle-trucks, crammed in like sardines. The elderly and less able are helped out buy the young and strong. They are assembled in a yard and informed that they are to be transported “to the East” but need to shower and be disinfected first. The weak are helped to undress and get into the “shower-room”. All this way they less able are assisted by those who could. They are standing in a shower waiting for the water to come down on them when the lights go off and gas comes out of the ceilings. They realise that will soon die and in an effort to save themselves all of them run too the door. That’s up to 2000 people all rushing towards a small doorway. As the gas begins to take effect they only think of themselves, all trying to get out. They fight, clawing at each other in an effort to survive. Within a few minutes all of them are dead and most are piled up by the door in bloody pyramid from having fought to the death in an effort to get out. From this, we can see how rapid the transformation from the group to individual is. We are obsessed with living. The want for life is a very basic flaw in humanity, we value life too highly. Ultimately, the end of life is nothing. Our body has shut down and we can’t feel, do or acknowledge anything. It should be nothing to us but throughout history religious ideology has “hyped-up” how valuable life is. Over the course of time it has been hard-wired into our systems that life is good.

For most people a certain sight can evoke the desire for the well-being of others. It could be the sight of a mother feeding her baby or anyone enjoying themselves over something as simple as a meal or game of cards. Personally, the sight of pleasure being envoked can make my day. Anyone can have pleasure from the simplest of things. People with troubled pasts (I have noticed this particularly in survivors of the Holocaust), seem to exist to please others. They live wth their memories and whenever they see someone enjoying themselves, the pleasure is almost theirs.

We feel for others as somewhere in our brains is an area of compassion. Everyone has this and in turn loves someone. For example, the Nazi Einsatzgruppen who roamed Eastern Europe for Jews to kill and were some of if not the most evil people in history loved someone, possibly a woman or child. They would have mourned the death of that person with all of their heart. Anyone can have pity but not always for anybody.