I am ill and watching TED talks

So, the idea that in order to save the human race, preserve for ourselves any kind of palatable future on this planet, etc., requires us all to extend our sense of empathy to include those outside our immediate circles is hardly a new one, but this video does deserve some credit for framing it as a necessary rather than a sufficient condition. Also, the animation is hypnotizing.

It's an interesting basic refutation of Enlightenment-style rational-self-interest morality theory, although it is rather astonishingly provincial in its so-called history of empathy bits. Also short-sighted in the optimism of its conclusions, e.g. when pointing out the global rush of empathy for Haiti after the earthquake, it fails to note how "all of humanity" lost interest distressingly soon thereafter. Perhaps I'm just cynical? 'Cause it seems to me like most people, when pressed, will acknowledge a moral duty to any living person (or sometimes, living being) but only actually feel obliged to do anything to help someone when they feel some immediate sense of empathy with them -- and this itself is nothing new; Hume noted as much in the 1700s.

I don't know where I'm going with this ramble. I blame the 'flu.