Comment: Our brother’s keeper
13 Aug 2012, 3:06 PM
Latheefa Ahmed Verrall
“I am talking about a moral deficit. I am talking about an empathy deficit. I am talking about an inability to recognise ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother’s keeper; we are our sister’s keeper.’ In his speech on Martin Luther King Day, President Obama points out the inexorable link between empathy and morality.
Obama’s speech is not merely sophisticated political rhetoric as scientific research backs up this connection. Recent publications such as Paul J. Zak’s book ‘The Moral Molecule’ and Christopher Boehm’s ‘Moral Origins’ all point out that morality binds and builds societies. Whether morality is a cultural construct or is purely biological in nature, this ‘moral advantage’ allows humans, unlike other primates, to live in large and complex societies.
Paul J. Zak’s work, published in ‘Psychology Today’ in September, 2011, further explains that an ancient molecule in the human brain – oxytocin – makes us feel empathy for others. Zak’s experiments, involving thousands of people, show conclusively that the large majority of people release oxytocin when they receive the appropriate social signals.
Some, however, are deficient in this ‘moral molecule’. This deficiency has huge implications for the state of the Maldives today.
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