The Empathic Civilization by Jeremy Rifkin

Jeremy Rifkin is one of the most renowned intellectuals of our time and an intuitive futurist. Not only is he a graduate of Wharton, but is also currently instructing CEOs and corporate management at Wharton, spreading his philosophy of Third Industrialization and collaborative movement toward sustainability. For many years, every single one of his controversial publication has encouraged heated debates, but I never had a chance to read any of them. This summer, I was very excited to finally read his most recent publication, 'The Empathic Civilization.'

Although the theme of this book is "empathy," Rifkin's discussion of empathy transcends various areas of study, ranging from psychology to history. The opening of this book coincides with the beginning of a human life, infancy, and he talks about how empathy is an inherent nature in humans, as proven by multiple psychological studies. Naturally, our conscious awareness of empathy too has evolved along with our own selves. In order to illustrate this, Rifkin takes the reader on a journey through different eras in human history, demonstrating the effects of cultural movement on our perception and expression of empathy. For example, during the Renaissance and the Romantic period, people began to perceive marital relationships with increased affection, as opposed to a mere social contract. Therefore, more focus was endowed upon compassion and empathy, leading to more compassionate nurturing and treatment of children. Our way of raising children has evolved a lot since then, as we can tell by the famous appellation, 'Generation X.'

Humans have experienced two Industrial Revolutions, during which efficiency and was high encouraged, whereas human empathy was temporarily neglected. Rifkin calls the approaching era 'Third Industrial Revolution,' which is a period of long-term economic sustainability, when nations address challenges of the global economic crisis, energy security and climate change. In order to solve these global issues, he argues for collaboration in the form of "distributed capitalism." He looks to the examples of collaborative system such as Linux, in order to illustrate how collaboration can be more efficient than competition, completely overthrowing the conventional market-oriented thinking.

I was absolutely amazed by the breadth of knowledge covered in this book, which further add potency to Rifkin's philosophy. Moreover, the constructive directions he offers future leaders are clearly indicative of Rifkin's passionate devotion to the betterment of the human race and concerns for our posterity. Empathy has always been inherently practiced through the course of our evolutionary progress. We are truly an empathic civilization and the need for us to exercise this empathy is direr now than ever.