Caring About Strangers

Have just seen in the newspapers about the escalating violence in Syria and it reminds me of a conversion I over heard after one of the major earthquakes in recent years. (Is it not sad that there have been so many that I cannot remember which one it was?)

The base line of the argument was 'caring because you cannot do anything else' versus 'not caring because you cannot do anything meaningful to stop the situation'.

To my way of thinking the 'not caring because you cannot do anything meaningful' is the root of much evil in the world.  As an Asperger/Autistic I have often been accused of not being sympathetic or sensitive to those around me.  This seems to me to be a very hypercritical statement, coming from people who will read about atrocity and disaster in their newspaper and then turn over the page without comment or care.

Yes, I agree, I have had to learn how to be compassionate and I have not always got it right.  However, now that I know how to feel their pain as my pain, I do not limit my compassion to only those who I meet every day.  Compassion is not an emotion that should be limited to only those within our borders.  I will agree that are probably too many immigrants for this country's social structure to cope with.  However, I also agree that having a third world in the so called enlightened age is a hypocrisy of democracy and that third world debt is an evil that ought to have been wiped off the books years ago.  I can share my apple with my neighbour but my neighbour does not have to be in my house for me to do it.

I cannot do anything materially, finicially or physically to help the innocent people suffering in Syria.  However, I can care!  I can care that I can't do anything!  I can care that people are terrified, are being hurt, are being killed.  I can care and is that not better than not caring?

Also there is this, I cannot do anything for the people in Syria but if caring about their plight prompts me to care more for the people I meet in the street, is that not a good thing?  Perhaps the world would be a better place if more people cared for those they cannot help and therefore, helped the ones that they can.