Roman Krznaric, The Philosopher Of Empathy
Roman Krznaric is an Australian philosopher with a very interesting approach where empathy leads to genuine and genuine leads to well-being. In his writings and his interventions, the inclusion of terms such as “cathedral thought” or “being good ancestors” is frequent.
One of his most recent works bears a title that seems to summarize his concerns: The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long-Term in a Short-Term World. He wrote it a couple of years ago, but published it in the midst of the crisis of 2020. This corroborated much of what he had already visualized in his reflections.
For Roman Krznaric, today’s world lives in a framework in which frenzied short-termism and the tyranny of now prevail. This is manifested in the culture of urban hyperconsumption and in an absolute dictatorship of the latter. None of this matches the truest human nature. Let’s see what you think about it.
Roman Krznaric and empathy
The concept of empathy is one of the axes in Roman Krznaric’s thinking. In a sense a text, which he wrote for The Guardian , laid out the reasons that made this topic so important to him. He says that he grew up with hardly any memories before he was 10 years old. At that age, his mother died of cancer.
What the future philosopher did was to withdraw emotionally and desensitize himself. Children often repress and deny in order to move forward in such devastating situations. Therefore, for Krznaric it was almost impossible to connect with others. He neither laughed at the joys of others, nor did he feel sorry for their sadness.
As he grew up, a very strong desire to deepen the concept of empathy was born in him. In one way or another, it was his way of regaining that empathic self that he had suffocated when he was just a child. He understood that this was not about feeling compassion for others, but capturing their points of view.
An interesting learning
In his excursion through the world of empathy, there were several experiences that marked Roman Krznaric. One of them was a long, multi-year interview with his father. This was a Pole who had been forced to emigrate to Australia, during World War II.
The conversation let him know that his father had been through great suffering. Witnessing a bloody war, hunger, disease and cruelty had left indelible marks on him. So when he got to his new home, he had taken pains to build a stable life, something Roman Krznaric deplored.
After that long conversation, Krznaric finally understood the origin of that paternal desire to design a predictable world for himself and his children. It was a kind of compensation for the terrible uncertainty he endured when he was very young. This revealed what empathy is: that ability to understand another’s point of view in a deep way.
Empathy and cathedral thought
In his work, Roman Krznaric advocates for humanity to develop empathy with those who will come in the future. He thinks that in today’s world the planet has been treated with a “colonialist” attitude, that is, as a no man’s land. However, human beings coexist with other species and with the Earth itself. Overlooking this is one of the reasons for the 2020 crisis.
Krznaric recalls that the concept of time has had a particular history. At first the clocks only marked the hours. A couple of centuries later, the minute hand was included and a little later, the second hand. Today it is already spoken in terms of nanoseconds.
From their point of view, this is inappropriate. That is why he speaks of the cathedral thought. This is a metaphor for Gothic cathedral builders who thought of their work in terms of centuries and not a couple of minutes. He believes that the human being should think like this again and get out of the pathological short-termism that prevails today.
Roman Krznaric is convinced that humanity must become aware that the time has come to design a long-term future. This purpose only makes sense if empathy prevails for the human, for those who will come. In his view, it is time to rethink stocks in terms of broad time frames. This alone would grant us a more genuine existence.
