A couple of years ago, I was astonished to learn that the school where I taught, for over 30 years, had declared war on… empathy. Yes, empathy, a quality I assiduously cultivated in my music classes and was—at one time—referenced in our school mission statement, as the nurturing of ‘caring individuals of all ages.’

Later, I learned that empathy was now being targeted by the Heritage Foundation.

Since then, it’s become one of those words or concepts that you see everywhere. Including from Elon Musk, who called it the fundamental weakness of Western Civilization. This was, BTW, about the time he and Big Balls were stealing your personal data from the government, under the guise of rooting out fraud. No empathy for you!

Here is some recent survey data from PRRI:

‘A new PRRI survey asked Americans whether empathy is a foundational moral value that helps build a healthy society. Among the religiously unaffiliated, 83% agreed. Among Jewish Americans, 77%. Among Latter-day Saints, 65%. Among white evangelical Protestants, 42%.

The same survey found that 54% of white evangelicals agree empathy can become dangerous when it leads people away from “a society guided by God’s truth.” No other major religious group put a majority behind that statement.

The widest split was over Christian nationalism. Of the people PRRI classifies as adherents, 38% called empathy foundational. Of those who reject it, 94%.’

I need to take a minute here to reflect on just what “God’s truth” means to white evangelicals. Even agnostics and atheists understand that there are some principles—love your neighbor as yourself—that are universal to world religions and pretty good guidelines for everyone, believer or non-, choosing peaceful lives. And weren’t we a nation FOUNDED on freedom of religion, or lack thereof?

I’m much more interested in the outcomes of building a school culture on caring for humans (and property, as stewardship of community resources), than the outcomes of a culture that cares first about competitive test scores.

One of my wisest teacher friends, Mary Tedrow, mused once that we used to talk about our historic purpose as teachers being building good citizens. Those citizens were our product—some went to college, some went into the workforce, some to the military, some to raising the next generation of students. Now, Mary said, our product is test scores.

And woe to the empathetic teacher who elevates building a community where students respect each other, feel responsibility for each other’s happiness and success, over competitive score-grubbing.

I’ve been thinking about the utter lack of empathy we’ve seen in midterm campaigns. If you Google “opposite of empathy” you get a range of unpleasant emotional responses, from apathy through insensitivity to contempt, heartlessness and sociopathy. None of which seems like something schools should be endorsing.

The poster child—poster ad, actually—for this lack of empathy is Vivek Ramaswamy’s zero-empathy-for- childhood-abuse advertisement featuring Amy Acton’s elderly, estranged and mentally ill mother. Salon points out that the ad also suggests there is another audience his campaign has in mind: aging MAGA voters who are obsessively angry about the phenomenon of parental estrangement.

You’ll never guess who MAGA blames for all this parental estrangement. Yup. Your local school, and its empathy-coded mission statement and libtard teachers willing to give other people’s kids extra help and second chances.

One of my favorite columnists, Jonathan V. Last at The Bulwark, takes a closer look at the PRRI data, and Christian Nationalism. Read it! Standout quote: Societies that lack empathy cannot sustain either liberalism or democracy.

I think—no data to back this up—that an overwhelming majority of public school educators would agree.

JV Last, again: ‘Cultural changes produce institutional changes. To a measurable extent, the culture of American Christianity among white Protestants and, increasingly, white Catholics, has shifted toward Christian nationalism. As such, large numbers of adherents now reject foundational principles of Christianity in order to reconcile the faith to their political preferences.’

And this, lest you think this is just a Trump thing:

JD Vance does not believe in the Christian doctrine of compassion, empathy, and help to those ailing and in need. Instead, he embraces the Musk/Thiel doctrine which puts self-love first and teaches that empathy is a blight on the world.

Repeating: Societies that lack empathy cannot sustain either liberalism or democracy.

Ball’s in our court, fellow voters.