Being Human IS a Choice

Flanders Field, 1914

            In Jeremy Rifkin’s important new book, The Empathic Civilization, he recalls an event from 1914 he believes still has great potential meaning and insight for our lives. At Christmas in 1914, great armies of Germany and France were engaged in some of the most awful battle experiences ever known to mankind. This was the time of trench warfare, no-man’s lands, and poison gas warfare. Never had pure horror on this level ever existed.

            Yet, Rifkin recalls how on Christmas morning of that year, white flags of truce began to appear on the edges of the trenches, and fighting men began to tentatively edge their way toward each other’s battle lines. This time however, there were no weapons—only various items of food and drink, and a few soccer balls. Throughout the day, archenemies sang, ate, and played games together. They shared pictures of loved ones, and talked about plans for war’s end. It was a remarkable and exceptional moment in time. 

            Rifkin says this glorious moment took place because these heroic soldiers—in spite of what their commanders were ordering—chose to be human! I believe Rifkin is seeing a distinctly important and vital element of our existence. Being human is a choice, a consequence of judgment. Being human is not something that simply occurs because we are homo sapiens. We enter into a situation, see the dynamics of the situation, determine what is the best we can do in the situation, and then make judgments. The virtue of these soldiers is seen in the goodness of their judgments. True heroism appears when they defy commanders, and step out onto battlefields with entirely new and different intent.

            In Rifkin’s concepts, he makes a distinction between “sympathy” and “empathy.” When we are “sympathetic,” we are having a conceptual engagement with other people where we rationally attempt to understand what is going on in their lives. Then, when we are “empathetic,” we actualize in reality what we have conceived in our minds. Many people are capable of conceptualization, but moving to actualization is where the real differences of life are made.  Within the context of the Judgment Index, we can actually measure a person’s capacity for both conceptualization and actualization regarding three important areas of judgement – people/relationships, tasks, and the big picture. A study of the people/relationship component will show a precise measure of the movement from “sympathy” to “empathy” that Rifkin is describing. The soldiers moved from “sympathy” to “empathy” and created a moment of true humanity in the midst of an awful battlefield. We find that many people are much better at conceptualization than they are actualization.

            In one of the most important statements in his book, Rifken states: “Without a well-developed concept of selfhood, however, mature empathic expression would be impossible.” Contemplate this statement for a few minutes. Its insight is remarkable. Here, we see the essential insight of Robert S. Hartman that the work-side of what we do always stands on the pedestal of the self-side of who we are. We will never be as good at what we do until the potential of who we are is realized at its highest level.

            Across decades of our work, we have consistently seen that the work-side tends to be stronger—even significantly stronger—than the self-side. Our greater work is not to build people who are stronger in the judgment needed to advance task performance, although advancing task performance is always important. Our greater work is to build people who are stronger in the judgment needed to advance personal understanding, self-awareness, and personal growth and development.

            The critical issue is that the relationship between work and self is often discounted in importance. Leaders in business and industry see a strong self-side as something nice to have, but that it is a “soft side” issue to be taken care of at home or in church. Truly enlightened leaders will see self-side development as both the right thing to do, and as a strategic endeavor that can do nothing but bring positive strength to any work agenda. 

            Work is always done by human beings. The best work will rise in the context of work cultures that advance human life. Fully human individuals will advance accomplishment and contribution at the highest levels. Even in the midst of awful battle, people can stop a war for a moment and celebrate each other. People can choose to be human, and a world can begin to show a potential for change. Yes, the soldiers would go back to battle, but their lives would never be the same.