Empathy is one of the most important skills vital for survival. However, it appears this vital skill is lacking among many in today’s society.

The reason empathy is so crucial to survival is because it allows a person to understand why another person behaves the way they do. Or believes what they believe.

Empathy is not sympathy. While many know how to be sympathetic, very few know how to be empathetic.

Empathy requires the ability to be aware of all of your biases and to be able to set them aside in order to view a situation from another’s perspective. This way you can understand their choices and beliefs.

The lack of empathy is apparent in online posts where people are constantly berating another person or group.

This is very common on Facebook post that deal with crimes, especially those that were committed by minorities or on posts that deal with horrendous situations.

As a liberal, nothing irritates me more than when other liberals lack empathy. They may be very empathetic or even sympathetic towards members of minority groups (racial minorities, LGBT, gender); however, they lack the ability to be empathetic towards people with opposing views.

An example would be whenever a liberal calls a conservative an idiot, a moron or an inbred without taking the time to actually view the issue from their perspective. Granted I disagree with a lot of the ideology guiding conservatives, but I try to understand their perspective.

I’m not trying to sound holier-than-thou.

I admit I’ve fallen pray to lashing out at people. The situation that comes to mind immediately occurred a few months ago on a Facebook post, as do all great regrets.

I was trying to have a “discussion” with other people and the other main contributor was being very disrespectful and then his last comment just sent me over the edge.

I essentially gave him the whole nine yards in my reply.

It was probably one of the cruelest things I have said to someone in the last year. Some of my Facebook friends that were following the conversation even messaged me to express their shock that I would actually post something so cruel.

Empathy is the key to our survival.

Empathizing with another person or group does not mean that we condone their actions or agree with their ideas – it means we are able to understand why they did what they did or their logic behind their ideas. If more people were able to understand others, that would go a long way in reducing the problems between different people.