Can we mastermind compassion at the global level?
Hitler did create toys, youth camps, and books to endoctrine children.
Communist Russia burned all the paintings in the country and replaced them with vibrant paintings advertising his new way of life.
The China of Mao Zedong started a cultural revolution that shook the basic foundation of the culture. It inspired kids to denounce adults they loved and respected.
If bad people could mastermind racism, personality cult, and the death of religion, then surely someone could mastermind a culture of kindness and compassion.
Mahatma Gandhi, Dalia Lama, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and others have tried their hand at it with more or less success.
But what have we learned about human behvior that would help us create a culture of compassion?
Jan Elliott conducted an experiment in her classroom in 1968. She divided her children depending on the color of their eyes then gave privileges to kids with blue eyes. The blue-eyed group performed better in class and bullied the other students. The brown-eyed group lost self-esteem and failed academically. At the end all the kids were relieved the experiment was over. No one was happy.
So yes, you can condition children to think a certain way.
In 1951, Dr. Solomon Asch asked a group to give the same wrong answer and invited an innocent participant into the group. The clueless participant always gave the same answer as the group to comform even if he or she knew better.
So yes, people tend to think like the group they are accepted in even when they know it's wrong.
In 1954, Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif proved that conflict can be resolved and prejudice overcome through cooperation.
Cooperation overcomes differences, so cooperation does lead to more compassion.
In 1973, John Darley and Daniel Batson demonstrated that altruism plays a more prominant role in the life of people when they are made aware of it.
From the previous studies, we learn quite few things:
- constantly keeping compassion in our mind will lead to more compassion
- being busy doesn't lead to compassion. People who have time for others tend to be more compassionate
- cooperation in a project with people who are different than you will lead to more compassion. Whether you want to teach yourself to be more compassionate or you want to teach others to have more compasssion, mingle with people who are different than you
- brace yourself for impact. If you think differently from others, be prepared for them to think something is wrong with you. In their eyes, you are an anomaly because most people think others think the same way they do.
- the more you expose your family to differences, the more compassion they will develop. It starts with toys that belong to minorities, and then have lots of books that show people who are different. By different I mean: physically different, spiritually different, and socially different.
Is it easy?
No!
No matter how I try to teach my kids how to be more compassionate toward other groups, they always demonstrate some prejudices.
Teaching is not enough.
For example, they never felt welcome in the local groups we tried to join, so it's hard for them to have a positive experience being in a different group.
Never mind that. We are still trying. We will not give up. And we will always stress the positives being in these groups.
Kids need to experiment being in more different groups.
If they feel they are not learning anything, they are still learning to be patient and understanding. You don't need to feel accepted to experience that.
You take what's positive and build on it.
Maybe others have learned something by them being there.
Learning compassion takes efforts.
Creating a culture of compassion is to create a group that thinks like you and they don't need to share your religious beliefs or your way of life to do that.
So yes, you can mastermind compassion, at least to a certain extent.
Learn more here:
The Charter for Compassion. https://charterforcompassion.org/the-charter-for-compassion-and-the-sustain
The 25 most influential psychological experiments in history. https://www.onlinepsychologydegree.info/influential-psychological-experiments/