And the lack of it.
Young Cunter stopped talking to me when he was 14 year’s old.
Around the time when he got his first motor scooter and an evening job in a bar.
He no longer needed anything from me or his mother.
He would come home and completely ignore us on his way to his room.
On his way out he would walk past us without a word.
This went on for years.
Just a few words from him if he ever needed something.
Kids go through phases so we were not particularly concerned.
He will grow out of it.
But he is now 31 and didn’t grow out of it.
He moved to the UK and would occasionally use us for a holiday.
He would be pleasant for just a few hours before going into a sulk and ignoring us for the rest of his stay.
He no longer visits and has not spoken to either of us for over two years.
I decided to do some research.
A few of the phrases that he has never used are…. “How are you?”, “What do you think?” and “I’m sorry”.
Armed with this information I searched the Internet.
There are at least 15 and as many as 21 signs of a complete lack of empathy.
How are you?
They are not in the slightest bit interested in how you are, it’s how they are that is the most important.
What do you think?
They don’t care what you think unless it is the same as what they think.
I’m sorry.
This is not in the vocabulary of a person without empathy.
Whatever happens is never their fault so they never have a reason to be sorry.
A list of the symptoms of a lack of empathy is interesting reading.
You will recognise the traits of every millennial.
I don’t think that there is anyone that is totally empathetic.
We all show some of these signs from time to time, but the younger generation take things to the extreme.
One of the reasons for someone to lack empathy is to have no roll model.
Perhaps it was me that caused it?
If it was then I believe that it was reinforced while he was at school.
Kids are never told ‘no’.
They are never wrong.
Failure is just deferred success.
It’s taking part that matters.
You can be whatever you want to be, and all of the rest of the bollocks that is fed to them.
Facebook, which leads them to believe that they have thousands of friends who all think like them.
The reality is that they have never met the huge majority of these people, and if anyone disagrees with anything posted or doesn’t offer enough ‘likes’ they are quickly ‘un-friended’ and blocked.
This is the lack of empathy. I believe that it is present in the last 2 generations.
It will only get worse.
Live bold and bloom
Nominated by The Artful Cunter.