The Empathic Civilization
Encyclopedia
The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis is a 2010 non-fiction book written by Jeremy Rifkin
. It connects the evolution of communication and energy development in civilizations with psychological and economic development in humans. Rifkin considers the latest phase of communication and energy regimes—that of electronic telecommunications and fossil fuel
extraction—as bringing people together on the nation-state level based on democratic capitalism
, but at the same time creating global problems, like climate change
, pandemics, and nuclear proliferation
. Rifkin extrapolates the observed trend into the future, predicting that Internet and mobile technology along with small-scale renewable energy commercialization
will create an era of distributed capitalism necessary to manage the new energy regime and a heightened global empathy
that can help solve global problems.
The book was published by Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc.
as a hardcover in January 2010. It was noted as being well-researched and covering a significant breadth of academic fields. However, reviews were mixed; several reviewers found that while Rifkin provided a convincing overview of the development of empathy, he did not provide sufficient proof that increased empathy would necessarily bring people together to co-operatively solve global problems.
had previously written several books that, like The Empathic Civilization, have attempted to extrapolate trends in the economy, technology, and society. For example, his 1995 book The End of Work
concerns the changes that tele-commuting would have on the workplace, his 1998 book The Biotech Century concerns the expected impacts of genetic engineering, and his 2002 book The Hydrogen Economy concerns the economic and social effects that will result from the expected replacement of fossil fuels with hydrogen as an energy storage medium. His last book before writing The Empathic Civilization was The European Dream
, published in 2004, comparing the American Dream
with the values expressed by Europeans in the post-industrial economy. At the time of publication, the 64 year old Rifkin was working as an advisor to the European Union
concerning issues relating to the economy, climate change, and energy security, as well as president of the American non-profit organization the Foundation on Economic Trends.
Rifkin argues that the global crisis of 2008 and 2011 marks the end of a particular energy regime – fossil fuels. The new global economy will be based upon renewable energy
, like wind power
, solar energy, natural gas
, etc. He calls this distributed capitalism because these energy sources are dispersed rather than centralized. They are best controlled by individuals or small communities. This will entail a very different power structure from fossil fuel, financial capitalism. This new structure is networked and decentralized, and an inherently much more democratic form of globalization.
, Melanie Klein
, Ronald Fairbairn
, Heinz Kohut
, and Donald Winnicott
, leading to John Bowlby
and Attachment Theory
. As psychological theory has evolved, empathy has played a larger and larger role, especially in the emotional and intellectual development of children. In terms of biology, Rifkin connects the biological function of mirror neuron
s with the capacity for empathy. Philosophically, Rifkin explores empathy-altruism
, the faith versus reason debate, and truth versus reality debate. Rifkin argues in favour of relationalism, that the meaning of existence is to enter into relationships. From the lens of empathy, he deconstructs the concepts of truth, freedom, democracy, equality, mortality.
The second part consists of five chapters and focuses on the rise, development, and fall of civilizations. Rifkin connects the qualitative changes in energy regimes and communication techniques with changes in how people understand and organize reality. Hunter-gatherer
societies were all oral cultures
and thus only existed in geographically-limited small groups and identified themselves symbiotically in terms of that group. Spiritually, these societies believed in local gods who were only known to others through oral tales. The development of writing, as well as hydraulics and irrigation, allowed agricultural societies to better organize themselves so that a larger geographic area and a larger population could be controlled. Hydraulic power was labour intensive, requiring large populations of subservient people. With scripts, there was a shift from a mythological consciousness to a theological consciousness; individuals thought of themselves less in terms of a small, local group and more with a monotheistic religion which included a personal relationship with a god.
Decentralization followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, as each town operated a water or wind mill and the printing press distributed literature, empowering more people. Autobiographies started to be written, more people married for love rather than other arrangements, and the concept of privacy, democracy, and market capitalism was more prevalent. People began to organize themselves more into nation-states. Steam and fossil fuels became the dominant energy regime and electronic communications, like telegraphs, radios, telephones, and television, became the dominant means of communication. With vastly more interaction with other people and cultures, there was more emphasis on studying people and psychology. Personal investments, social exploration, and creativity became highly valued.
The third part consists of the remaining five chapters. Rifkin extrapolates the changes in energy regimes to predict a shift in production towards renewable sources like wind and solar power under distributed (i.e. personal) management. Rifkin also extrapolates the changes in communication to predict a proliferation of wireless, mobile personal communication that allows people to be constantly connected to others regardless of distance, language, or other barriers. This will evolve people's sense of empathy to create a biosphere-wide consciousness and a mode of production he calls distributed capitalism. Rifkin believes this new system will allow people to solve more complex issues, such as climate change and pathogenic pandemics, focus more on quality of life (rather than materialistic) issues, and value collaboration over competition.
. Rifkin synthesizes research and material from fields such as literature and the arts, theology, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, political science, psychology, and communication theory. The book was described as sociobiology
. The Empathic Civilization was contrasted to the book Crisis Economics by Nouriel Roubini
and Stephen Mihm, as reaching different conclusions but being complementary by offering valid alternative futures different from contemporary belief in social progress
.
John N. Gray's review in The Guardian
described the theme of Rifkin's argument as "a struggle between the polar forces of empathy and entropy" and that "as civilisation has extended the reach of empathy beyond the family and the tribe ... the expanding infrastructure of industry and transport has needed ever larger inputs of energy, increasing entropy and wrecking the planet".
, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA)
, in North America and by Cambridge Polity Press in the United Kingdom. Cambridge Polity Press also published the book in Australia and New Zealand beginning in March 2010. A German translation was published by Campus Verlag and Spanish language version was released by Mexican publisher Paidós Méxicana. Excerpts were published in the Huffington Post and Arianna Huffington
named it one of the best books of the year.
found that Rifkin spent most of the book defending his "view that humans are essentially empathic animals" and ultimately "fails to substantiate its central thesis" that empathy in humans will make them able to deal with a world-wide crisis, like global warming. In The Globe and Mail
, the reviewer expressed a similar view that Rifkin "doesn't explain how...empathy can vanquish a physical principle, entropy".
The reviewer in the Edmonton Journal
admitted the book is well-researched and presents "an immense amount of engaging evidence" on empathy, but ultimately dismisses it as "a shallow intellectual hit" due to its "simple thesis, souped up unnecessarily" and "impression of having been written in a hurry, with a marketing rep scribbling catchphrases over Rifkin's shoulder". Along with the Edmonton Journal review, numerous others noted either the book's eurocentric interpretation of history or selective historiography
.
Michael Dudly, reviewing for the Winnipeg Free Press
, labelled the book "ambitious", "deserving of a wide audience" and "at times fascinating but ultimately underwhelming". Dudley found the book "covers so many topics that few of them are given the depth they deserve" and that "despite the book's considerable length, it is also surprisingly limited in scope". For example, Dudley was disappointed with the few references made to Marshall McLuhan
and the lack of reference to the works of Julian Jaynes
. Likewise, the reviewer in Journal of Psychohistory
was disappointed with the one reference to Lloyd deMause
who the reviewer believed would have helped Rifkin's case. The book was reviewed in the journal Integral Leadership Review from a spiral dynamics
point-of-view, noting that it speaks more towards people at green and turquoise.
Jeremy Rifkin
Jeremy Rifkin is an American economist, writer, public speaker, political advisor and activist. He is the founder and president of the Foundation On Economic Trends...
. It connects the evolution of communication and energy development in civilizations with psychological and economic development in humans. Rifkin considers the latest phase of communication and energy regimes—that of electronic telecommunications and fossil fuel
Fossil fuel
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...
extraction—as bringing people together on the nation-state level based on democratic capitalism
Democratic capitalism
Democratic capitalism, also known as capitalist democracy, is a political, economic, and social system and ideology based on a tripartite arrangement of a market-based economy based predominantly on a democratic polity, economic incentives through free markets, fiscal responsibility and a liberal...
, but at the same time creating global problems, like climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
, pandemics, and nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...
. Rifkin extrapolates the observed trend into the future, predicting that Internet and mobile technology along with small-scale renewable energy commercialization
Renewable energy commercialization
Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal power and heat...
will create an era of distributed capitalism necessary to manage the new energy regime and a heightened global empathy
Empathy
Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...
that can help solve global problems.
The book was published by Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc.
Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc.
Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc., founded by Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1973, in Los Angeles, California, is a book publisher and imprint of Penguin Group focused primarily on mind, body and spiritualism titles...
as a hardcover in January 2010. It was noted as being well-researched and covering a significant breadth of academic fields. However, reviews were mixed; several reviewers found that while Rifkin provided a convincing overview of the development of empathy, he did not provide sufficient proof that increased empathy would necessarily bring people together to co-operatively solve global problems.
Background
Author Jeremy RifkinJeremy Rifkin
Jeremy Rifkin is an American economist, writer, public speaker, political advisor and activist. He is the founder and president of the Foundation On Economic Trends...
had previously written several books that, like The Empathic Civilization, have attempted to extrapolate trends in the economy, technology, and society. For example, his 1995 book The End of Work
The End of Work
The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era is a non-fiction book by American economist Jeremy Rifkin, published in 1995 by Putnam Publishing Group....
concerns the changes that tele-commuting would have on the workplace, his 1998 book The Biotech Century concerns the expected impacts of genetic engineering, and his 2002 book The Hydrogen Economy concerns the economic and social effects that will result from the expected replacement of fossil fuels with hydrogen as an energy storage medium. His last book before writing The Empathic Civilization was The European Dream
The European Dream
The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream is a book, by Jeremy Rifkin published in September 2004. Rifkin describes the emergence and evolution of the European Union over the past five decades, as well as key differences between European and...
, published in 2004, comparing the American Dream
American Dream
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each...
with the values expressed by Europeans in the post-industrial economy. At the time of publication, the 64 year old Rifkin was working as an advisor to the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
concerning issues relating to the economy, climate change, and energy security, as well as president of the American non-profit organization the Foundation on Economic Trends.
Rifkin argues that the global crisis of 2008 and 2011 marks the end of a particular energy regime – fossil fuels. The new global economy will be based upon renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
, like wind power
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
, solar energy, natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
, etc. He calls this distributed capitalism because these energy sources are dispersed rather than centralized. They are best controlled by individuals or small communities. This will entail a very different power structure from fossil fuel, financial capitalism. This new structure is networked and decentralized, and an inherently much more democratic form of globalization.
Synopsis
The Empathic Civilization is divided into three parts with an introductory chapter that summarizes the contents and arguments of the book. The first part consists of four chapters and analyses empathy from the perspective of psychology, biology, and philosophy. Rifkin provides a history of empathy in psychology, including how it relates to the works of Freudian psychologyPsychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
, Melanie Klein
Melanie Klein
Melanie Reizes Klein was an Austrian-born British psychoanalyst who devised novel therapeutic techniques for children that had an impact on child psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis...
, Ronald Fairbairn
Ronald Fairbairn
William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn was a Scottish psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and a central figure in the development of the object relations theory of psychoanalysis.-Life:He was born in Edinburgh in 1889...
, Heinz Kohut
Heinz Kohut
Heinz Kohut was an Austrian-born American psychoanalyst best known for his development of Self psychology, an influential school of thought within psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory which helped transform the modern practice of analytic and dynamic treatment approaches.-Early life:Kohut was born...
, and Donald Winnicott
Donald Winnicott
Donald Woods Winnicott was an English paediatrician and psychoanalyst who was especially influential in the field of object relations theory. He was a leading member of the British Independent Group of the British Psychoanalytic Society, and a close associate of Marion Milner...
, leading to John Bowlby
John Bowlby
Edward John Mostyn "John" Bowlby was a British psychologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory.- Family background :...
and Attachment Theory
Attachment theory
Attachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally. Attachment theory is an interdisciplinary study...
. As psychological theory has evolved, empathy has played a larger and larger role, especially in the emotional and intellectual development of children. In terms of biology, Rifkin connects the biological function of mirror neuron
Mirror neuron
A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behaviour of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. Such neurons have been directly observed in primate and other...
s with the capacity for empathy. Philosophically, Rifkin explores empathy-altruism
Empathy-altruism
Empathy-altruism is a form of altruism based on feelings for others.The social exchange theory basically states that altruism does not exist unless benefits outweigh the costs. C. Daniel Batson disagrees. He feels that people help out of genuine concern for the well-being of the other person. The...
, the faith versus reason debate, and truth versus reality debate. Rifkin argues in favour of relationalism, that the meaning of existence is to enter into relationships. From the lens of empathy, he deconstructs the concepts of truth, freedom, democracy, equality, mortality.
The second part consists of five chapters and focuses on the rise, development, and fall of civilizations. Rifkin connects the qualitative changes in energy regimes and communication techniques with changes in how people understand and organize reality. Hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
societies were all oral cultures
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
and thus only existed in geographically-limited small groups and identified themselves symbiotically in terms of that group. Spiritually, these societies believed in local gods who were only known to others through oral tales. The development of writing, as well as hydraulics and irrigation, allowed agricultural societies to better organize themselves so that a larger geographic area and a larger population could be controlled. Hydraulic power was labour intensive, requiring large populations of subservient people. With scripts, there was a shift from a mythological consciousness to a theological consciousness; individuals thought of themselves less in terms of a small, local group and more with a monotheistic religion which included a personal relationship with a god.
Decentralization followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, as each town operated a water or wind mill and the printing press distributed literature, empowering more people. Autobiographies started to be written, more people married for love rather than other arrangements, and the concept of privacy, democracy, and market capitalism was more prevalent. People began to organize themselves more into nation-states. Steam and fossil fuels became the dominant energy regime and electronic communications, like telegraphs, radios, telephones, and television, became the dominant means of communication. With vastly more interaction with other people and cultures, there was more emphasis on studying people and psychology. Personal investments, social exploration, and creativity became highly valued.
The third part consists of the remaining five chapters. Rifkin extrapolates the changes in energy regimes to predict a shift in production towards renewable sources like wind and solar power under distributed (i.e. personal) management. Rifkin also extrapolates the changes in communication to predict a proliferation of wireless, mobile personal communication that allows people to be constantly connected to others regardless of distance, language, or other barriers. This will evolve people's sense of empathy to create a biosphere-wide consciousness and a mode of production he calls distributed capitalism. Rifkin believes this new system will allow people to solve more complex issues, such as climate change and pathogenic pandemics, focus more on quality of life (rather than materialistic) issues, and value collaboration over competition.
Style and genre
The book was noted for its heft, in terms of its actual page numbers, exhaustive research, and dense academic language. The writing does occasionally include illustrative anecdotes and some plain languagePlain language
Plain language is clear, succinct writing designed to ensure the reader understands as quickly and completely as possible.Plain language strives to be easy to read, understand, and use. It avoids verbose, convoluted language and jargon...
. Rifkin synthesizes research and material from fields such as literature and the arts, theology, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, political science, psychology, and communication theory. The book was described as sociobiology
Sociobiology
Sociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behavior has resulted from evolution and attempts to explain and examine social behavior within that context. Often considered a branch of biology and sociology, it also draws from ethology, anthropology,...
. The Empathic Civilization was contrasted to the book Crisis Economics by Nouriel Roubini
Nouriel Roubini
Nouriel Roubini is an American economist. He claims to have predicted both the collapse of the United States housing market and the worldwide recession which started in 2008. He teaches at New York University's Stern School of Business and is the chairman of Roubini Global Economics, an economic...
and Stephen Mihm, as reaching different conclusions but being complementary by offering valid alternative futures different from contemporary belief in social progress
Social progress
Social progress is the idea that societies can or do improve in terms of their social, political, and economic structures. This may happen as a result of direct human action, as in social enterprise or through social activism, or as a natural part of sociocultural evolution...
.
John N. Gray's review in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
described the theme of Rifkin's argument as "a struggle between the polar forces of empathy and entropy" and that "as civilisation has extended the reach of empathy beyond the family and the tribe ... the expanding infrastructure of industry and transport has needed ever larger inputs of energy, increasing entropy and wrecking the planet".
Publication
The Empathic Civilization was published in January 2010 by Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc.Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc.
Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc., founded by Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1973, in Los Angeles, California, is a book publisher and imprint of Penguin Group focused primarily on mind, body and spiritualism titles...
, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA)
Penguin Group
The Penguin Group is a trade book publisher, the largest in the world , having overtaken Random House in 2009. The Penguin Group is the name of the incorporated division of parent Pearson PLC that oversees these publishing operations...
, in North America and by Cambridge Polity Press in the United Kingdom. Cambridge Polity Press also published the book in Australia and New Zealand beginning in March 2010. A German translation was published by Campus Verlag and Spanish language version was released by Mexican publisher Paidós Méxicana. Excerpts were published in the Huffington Post and Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known as co-founder of the news website The Huffington Post. A popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, she adopted more liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s...
named it one of the best books of the year.
Reception
The book received mixed reviews by critics. Philosopher John N. Gray's review in The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
found that Rifkin spent most of the book defending his "view that humans are essentially empathic animals" and ultimately "fails to substantiate its central thesis" that empathy in humans will make them able to deal with a world-wide crisis, like global warming. In The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
, the reviewer expressed a similar view that Rifkin "doesn't explain how...empathy can vanquish a physical principle, entropy".
The reviewer in the Edmonton Journal
Edmonton Journal
The Edmonton Journal is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network.-History:The Journal was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as a rival to Alberta's first newspaper, the 23-year-old...
admitted the book is well-researched and presents "an immense amount of engaging evidence" on empathy, but ultimately dismisses it as "a shallow intellectual hit" due to its "simple thesis, souped up unnecessarily" and "impression of having been written in a hurry, with a marketing rep scribbling catchphrases over Rifkin's shoulder". Along with the Edmonton Journal review, numerous others noted either the book's eurocentric interpretation of history or selective historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
.
Michael Dudly, reviewing for the Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg Free Press
The Winnipeg Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Founded in 1872, as the Manitoba Free Press, it is the oldest newspaper in western Canada. It is the newspaper with the largest readership in the province....
, labelled the book "ambitious", "deserving of a wide audience" and "at times fascinating but ultimately underwhelming". Dudley found the book "covers so many topics that few of them are given the depth they deserve" and that "despite the book's considerable length, it is also surprisingly limited in scope". For example, Dudley was disappointed with the few references made to Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar—a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist...
and the lack of reference to the works of Julian Jaynes
Julian Jaynes
Julian Jaynes was an American psychologist, best known for his book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind , in which he argued that ancient peoples were not conscious....
. Likewise, the reviewer in Journal of Psychohistory
Journal of Psychohistory
The Journal of Psychohistory is a journal in the field of psychohistory published by the Institute for Psychohistory. It aims to provide "a new psychological view of world events — past and present"...
was disappointed with the one reference to Lloyd deMause
Lloyd deMause
Lloyd deMause, pronounced de-Moss , is an American social thinker known for his work in the field of psychohistory. He did graduate work in political science at Columbia University and later trained as a lay psychoanalyst...
who the reviewer believed would have helped Rifkin's case. The book was reviewed in the journal Integral Leadership Review from a spiral dynamics
Spiral dynamics
Spiral Dynamics is a theory of human development introduced in the 1996 book Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Chris Cowan. The book was based on the theory of psychology professor Clare W. Graves...
point-of-view, noting that it speaks more towards people at green and turquoise.
External links
- The Empathic Civilization – Homepage
- Cambridge Polity Press – The Empathic Civilization
- Technology Entertainment and Design – TEDTED (conference)TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
lecture by Jeremy Rifkin