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