Meryl Streep Asks About The Function of Empathy in Humans
Meryl Streep - Empathy Is The Engine
Transcript:
"I used to wonder why human beings developed these inconvenient and embarrassing response, this sniffling, choking, wet obstruction. The thing that physicians and soldiers and stock traders and journalists and fashion models and politicians and news commentators and venture capitalists all must suppress in order to work most efficiently. I thought, "What possible value, function could it serve in the Darwinian scheme of, you know, survival of the fittest and the strongest and the most heavily armed?" No, seriously, I thought, "Why and how did we evolve with this weak and useless passion intact within the deep heart's core?" The answer as I've formulated it to myself is that empathy is the engine that powers all the best in us. It is what civilizes us. It is what connects us."
- Meryl Streep
Two of Mr. Moriarty's students pose with their yearbook from 1982.WHAM via CNN / Video
man holding a yearbookWHAM via CNN / Video
Black and white photos from school yearbookWHAM via CNN / Video
Patrick Moriarty (center, blue shirt) and a group of his former students watched the solar eclipse together on Monday in New York.Caitlin Moriarty Hynick
