Empathy

or Are Elephants the Better Beings?

I will always remember Richard Leakey’s lecture, decades ago, shortly after we had arrived in Kenya, which would be our home for the next three years. Kenya-born Leakey was a member of a famous clan of paleo-anthropologists. His second wife, his mother, father, brother, and of course he himself, they all contributed essentially to solve the mystery of the origin of mankind.

Kenya – or Africa in general - is considered the cradle of mankind, and the topic of Leakey’s talk was the transition from primates to humans. One key element he singled out was – empathy. If a “being” on four legs lost one, it was still able to hobble along (although not for very long considering all the lurking predators, I assume). If homo erectus, as the name implies, lost one of the two legs, he/she could only survive with the help of others, of the family, of the clan, of the community. In other words, empathy made human beings “human” and “humane”.

Looking at the pictures from around the world, I wonder to what degree we are regressing in humanity. True, wars did exist as long as mankind, and atrocities have been committed throughout history, just to remember the darkest chapter of my own people. But I wonder what is going on in people in times of peace and prosperity, who take delight in the humiliation, in the misery of their fellow human beings. What makes them applaud when members of ICE arrest people – including women and children – with utmost brutality, spreading fear and terror? Who poses – cheerfully – in front of a sign “Alligator Alcatraz”? What is going on in the minds (and souls) of those who created this name and are bragging about it? I don’t even want to mention the name of the person who fantasizes about “feeding” humans to these beasts. I could go on. Do not many of these same people call themselves “Christians”? Did they ever recall what is written in the Bible about their “neighbors”? Yes, I do remember the proverb, made famous by Hobbes, “homo homini lupus est” (Man is a wolf to man). Indeed, human cruelty is not a new phenomenon, witnessing it here and now, however, still comes as a shock.

Let’s go back to Kenya. Female elephants form herds where every member is protected and no one is left behind. If end is near for one of them, the whole herd gathers at a specific place to be with the dying creature, to not abandon it in the hour of death. We saw these “elephant cemeteries” with our own eyes, it is not a myth. And I am close to believe the saga that elephants even “bury” the human being whom they killed with twigs and leaves. They pay respect – show empathy – to their unvoluntary victim, as they never do it for lust to kill, only when humans infringe on their territory. It made me wonder – then and now – who are the better, the true “human” creatures on this planet.