Is The "Me Generation" Less Empathetic?
According to a University of Michigan study of 13,737 college students in the U.S. by Sarah Konrath at her associates at the Institute for Social Research, young people today, compared to college students in the late 1970's are "40% lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago." The researchers examined 72 studies of students with a mean age of 20 from 1979 to 2000, all of whom had taken the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index test, which looks at empathetic concern, an emotional response to distress to others and perspective taking or the ability to imagine another person's perspective--often expressed as "being in other person's shoes.
The researchers reported than there has been a 48% decrease in empathetic concern and a 34% decrease in perspective taking between 1979 and 2009. The researchers also reported that today's college students were less likely to have empathetic feelings for people less fortunate than them.
My observation, based on the work of Jeremy Rifkin's book The Empathetic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World of Crisis is that "researchers in a diverse range of disciplines are arguing that all human activity is embodied experience--what Rifkin calls participation in the lives of others--and that the ability to read and respond to another person as if it was you, is the key to how people engage with the world, create identity, develop language, make decisions and define reality.
Empathy, de Waal explains, is the social glue that holds human society together.
The day that makes us what we are
Yet a greater, and more accurate, analysis of Gallipoli in schools would not necessarily translate into increased interest in Anzac Day. Young people's attendance at commemorations has little to do with such minutiae. Rather, it is founded on the same emotion that fostered an astonishing response to last year's repatriation of the Unknown Warrior. People queued to visit the casket, and as many as 10,000 lined the streets of Wellington to see the Warrior's carriage make its way to the National War Memorial.
Title:
Comfort food for the troops Illawarra Mercury, Apr 23, 2003
Database:
Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre
Anzac Day is not celebrated but commemorated and food served on Anzac Day is what brings comfort.
Few would argue there are many more reassuring things in life than the smell of baking Anzac biscuits wafting from the kitchen, or sitting down later to share them with family and friends over a cup of tea.
Torture in trenches Turks tormented Anzacs with aroma of cooking food
Title:
Torture in trenches Turks tormented Anzacs with aroma of cooking food By: IAN MCPHEDRAN, Daily Telegraph, The (Sydney), Oct 05, 2011
Database:
Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre
The second phase of an archaeological survey of the Anzac battlefields, where 8700 young Australian men perished, has uncovered firm evidence that Turkish troops were fed fresh rations from field kitchens located close to the frontline.
But the Anzacs spent months on a diet of bully beef, hard biscuits and jam, with their poor diet contributing to the high number of sick troops evacuated to the relative luxury of a hospital ship and fresh food.
Nothing much changes in war and even today Australian troops patrolling in the harsh valleys of Afghanistan eating ``MREs'' -- that officially stands for meals ready to eat, but the troops call them ``meals rejected in Ethiopia'' -- seek out local flat bread and rice whenever they can.
Head of the survey team, Melbourne University archaeologist Professor Tony Sagona, said virtually all metal food containers found so far at Gallipoli had been turned up on the Anzac side.
He said the team had found the remains of an Ottoman kitchen, including bricks, tiles and ovens very close to the Turkish frontline.
``The Ottoman army was largely cooking its own food, whereas allied soldiers were largely eating processed food,'' he said.
The only exception for the Anzacs were the lucky few stationed close to the Indian troops who could enjoy an occasional curry.
The latest survey also uncovered ``Malone's Terrace'', where New Zealand Lieutenant Colonel William Malone built a terraced area for his men to sleep in relative comfort. Malone believed that ``war is the cultivation of domestic virtues'' and that his men should be as comfortable as possible.
Veterans Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon said the first survey of Gallipoli would build a greater understanding of what the Anzacs and their enemies endured during the brutal nine-month campaign.
More than 50,000 Australian troops served at Gallipoli.
According to a University of Michigan study of 13,737 college students in the U.S. by Sarah Konrath at her associates at the Institute for Social Research, young people today, compared to college students in the late 1970's are "40% lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago." The researchers examined 72 studies of students with a mean age of 20 from 1979 to 2000, all of whom had taken the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index test, which looks at empathetic concern, an emotional response to distress to others and perspective taking or the ability to imagine another person's perspective--often expressed as "being in other person's shoes.
The researchers reported than there has been a 48% decrease in empathetic concern and a 34% decrease in perspective taking between 1979 and 2009. The researchers also reported that today's college students were less likely to have empathetic feelings for people less fortunate than them.
My observation, based on the work of Jeremy Rifkin's book The Empathetic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World of Crisis is that "researchers in a diverse range of disciplines are arguing that all human activity is embodied experience--what Rifkin calls participation in the lives of others--and that the ability to read and respond to another person as if it was you, is the key to how people engage with the world, create identity, develop language, make decisions and define reality.
Empathy, de Waal explains, is the social glue that holds human society together.
The day that makes us what we are
The number of New Zealanders attending Anzac Day events in New Zealand, and at Gallipoli, is increasing. For some younger people, the sombre focus of the day receives less emphasis than do the more celebratory aspects of a national holiday. For most, though, the day is an occasion on which to formally pay tribute and to remember.
Anzac Day now promotes a sense of e whose politics, beliefs and aspirations are widely different can nevertheless share a genuine sorrow at the loss of so many lives in war, and a real respect for those who have endured warfare on behalf of the country we live in.
Coffee and a tot of rum
Torture in trenches Turks tormented Anzacs with aroma of cooking food
The scent of something delicious but unattainable makes what you have seem less.
Anzac Day now promotes a sense of e whose politics, beliefs and aspirations are widely different can nevertheless share a genuine sorrow at the loss of so many lives in war, and a real respect for those who have endured warfare on behalf of the country we live in.
Coffee and a tot of rum
Anzac Day is not celebrated but commemorated and food served on Anzac Day is what brings comfort.
Few would argue there are many more reassuring things in life than the smell of baking Anzac biscuits wafting from the kitchen, or sitting down later to share them with family and friends over a cup of tea.
The second phase of an archaeological survey of the Anzac battlefields, where 8700 young Australian men perished, has uncovered firm evidence that Turkish troops were fed fresh rations from field kitchens located close to the frontline.
But the Anzacs spent months on a diet of bully beef, hard biscuits and jam, with their poor diet contributing to the high number of sick troops evacuated to the relative luxury of a hospital ship and fresh food.
Nothing much changes in war and even today Australian troops patrolling in the harsh valleys of Afghanistan eating ``MREs'' -- that officially stands for meals ready to eat, but the troops call them ``meals rejected in Ethiopia'' -- seek out local flat bread and rice whenever they can.
Head of the survey team, Melbourne University archaeologist Professor Tony Sagona, said virtually all metal food containers found so far at Gallipoli had been turned up on the Anzac side.
He said the team had found the remains of an Ottoman kitchen, including bricks, tiles and ovens very close to the Turkish frontline.
``The Ottoman army was largely cooking its own food, whereas allied soldiers were largely eating processed food,'' he said.
The only exception for the Anzacs were the lucky few stationed close to the Indian troops who could enjoy an occasional curry.
The latest survey also uncovered ``Malone's Terrace'', where New Zealand Lieutenant Colonel William Malone built a terraced area for his men to sleep in relative comfort. Malone believed that ``war is the cultivation of domestic virtues'' and that his men should be as comfortable as possible.
Veterans Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon said the first survey of Gallipoli would build a greater understanding of what the Anzacs and their enemies endured during the brutal nine-month campaign.
More than 50,000 Australian troops served at Gallipoli.
Gallipoli Beach
So it was pretty windy and hot around this time of the year in Gallipoli. I am wondering if one of my experiments could be trying to simulate these weather conditions ie eating in front of a fan, with the waft of warm tasty food, what might have been a soldier's last meal.
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