This just in, humans devolving by Valerie Merians

Famed primatologist Frans de Waal new book, The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society is just out, and in it he breaks the news that we humans are not alone in feeling empathy for our fellows. But when asked by the Washington Post‘s blog “Short Stack” to apply his findings to the political arena, his guest post begins with a hard question:

“Are Americans lacking in empathy?

You would almost think so hearing Rush Limbaugh mock Michael J. Fox‘s Parkinson’s symptoms, or Missouri Rep. Cynthia Davis opposing school lunches, saying that ‘hunger can be a positive motivator.'”

De Waal states that, “Empathy is an ancient capacity found in all mammals, ranging from dogs to apes.” Yet in discussing human empathy he says,”At the intersection of private interests and the greater good, however, things change radically. One group of people maintains its empathy for others, whereas another actively suppresses it. These groups are known as tender-hearted liberals and hard-nosed conservatives.”

As for the Conservatives, De Waal says they “offer elaborate rationalizations why the misery of others is none of our business, including that this is how nature works. Thus, a group with little or no affection for real Darwinism tells us that since nature is based on survival of the fittest, society ought to be as well.”

But from his experience as a scientist, he disagrees, “Natural selection has produced highly social and cooperative animals, which rely on each other for survival. On its own, a wolf cannot bring down large prey…. Why accept the assumption of cut-throat nature when there is so much proof to the contrary?”

In the end he makes a plea for the wisdom of the ages, “Instead of killing this laudable tendency toward empathy with arguments based on a faulty understanding of the natural world, I just hope we will give it room to be expressed. In the end, everyone will be better off if we join forces the way our ancestors and their ancestors have done for millions of years.”

Doing things the old-fashioned way, the way they’ve been done for millions of years — now that’s conservative!