Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feelings that have been … - Susan Sontag

Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers.

We do not find among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and the Orientals the same value placed on love because we do not find there the same positive value placed on suffering. Suffering was not the hallmark of seriousness; rather, seriousness was measured by one’s ability to evade or transcend the penalty of suffering, by one’s ability to achieve tranquillity and equilibrium. In contrast, the sensibility we have inherited identifies spirituality and seriousness with turbulence, suffering, passion. For two thousand years, among Christians and Jews, it has been spiritually fashionable to be in pain. Thus it is not love which we overvalue, but suffering — more precisely, the spiritual merits and benefits of suffering.

No “we” should be taken for granted when the subject is looking at other people’s pain.

Ever since [the Vietnam War], battles and massacres filmed as they unfold have been a routine ingredient of the ceaseless flow of domestic, small-screen entertainment.