Ignorant Compassion

Those are two words you probably don't see put together often if ever. Immediately it looks offensive, doesn't it? Are you offended by seeing those two words side by side? It has its place though, and if you look at the social and political arenas right now, this perspective is everywhere.

Ignorant compassion is something that I've observed for awhile now but couldn't express because of how inverted it is as a perspective. I've had to look deep into the mirror on this one. It is an imbalance, with genuine caring on the one side while foregoing awareness on the other, to the extent that the caring itself becomes misdirected and short-sighted yet justified in its misdirection and short-sightedness. Strange dichotomy? It sure is.

To the extent that this perspective is held without knowing due to its ignorance aspect, the compassion aspect will actually fight off certain aspects of logic, for logic in all its analyzing and observing ways will appear to be uncompassionate, especially when applied logic starts digging into an issue that has brought forth a strong sense of compassion. Logic here is dismissed as left-brained and emotionless. Ignorant compassion will point the finger to a different perspective and call it ignorant, even at a perspective which is not ignorant, or less ignorant, or at a perspective that can see something that cannot be seen through the lens of ignorant compassion. What's worse, the individual holding the perspective of ignorant compassion in this instance won't even know it. Their compassion has blinded them, and being blinded by compassion is a rather difficult blockage to overcome, given the shared, valued, and necessary nature of compassion itself. This is a terrible trap.

Ignorant compassion is a problem for one very major and important reason. It is a perspective that sees the wound but not the infection, and that in doing so, it drives energy and action through the sense of compassion towards only the wound. It will lead one to seek to heal the wound, often regardless of the cost. It is necessary to heal the wound, especially when it is a wound to which we can individually relate.

But if the wound is sewn up and the infection is not dealt with or even identified (and it would be even harder to identify once the wound has been sealed), and that the very attempt to identify the infection has been BLOCKED by the emotional momentum of compassion itself, you can see the deeper problem that can manifest from there. This is incredibly inverted, and turning it right-side up is, amazingly enough, viewed as being without compassion! Why? Because ignorant compassion sees that focusing on something other than the wound is wasting resources. As far as ignorant compassion is concerned, there is no infection. So why put any energy towards dealing with it when there is a nasty wound visible for all to see?

The imbalance of ignorant compassion is severe because of the emotional component. How dare you say something that does not speak to my sense of compassion? How dare you not validate that issue that has caused so much pain? How DARE you? How uncaring are you, you conspiracy theorist left-or-right-or-left-or-right-wing hateful ignorant (eh?) uncompassionate racist sexist bigoted liberal-conservative-communist-socialist-capitalist-fascist asshat?

Being human, we care. That caring means something. This matters. It is important. As human beings, our sense of compassion is vital for a peaceful and sharing society. But the major crux of what is being discussed here is that if the perspective that holds this sense of compassion does not, or cannot, or is unwilling to even try to identify the ROOT CAUSE of a problem (aka the infection) that created a wound which has drawn forth our sense of compassion towards that wound in the first place, the individual will be charged with emotional momentum to the extent that any discussion that deals with the real root cause is seen as uncompassionate, mean, or the latest - victim-hating misogyny. And this is all justified because it has been driven by compassion that is focused on healing something real. The problem is that the depth of it is not being realized, and won't be, because pointing to those depths is taken as being offensive. Again - how dare you?

Calling out ignorant compassion itself is, like this discussion is doing, equally trying because it flies in the face of the compassion that justifies, promotes, and fuels action, which provides even more momentum. Even if identifying and discussing this perspective is balanced in awareness and logic while still holding a sense of compassion throughout the discussion, this will often be disregarded because nobody wants to see themselves as being ignorant. Who wants to admit ignorance? That's a tough one at the best of times. It's humbling and potentially embarrassing. When someone manages to come to terms with some element of their own ignorance, then they can, by their own admission, say that they have reduced their ignorance. But squaring up with ignorance that is situated beside one's sense of compassion? What a trap that is. Can you see it? Second to that is if an individual has experienced their own equivalent of the issue that they have compassion for. Here we have a huge psychological component that is beyond the scope of this discussion, but I hope that it is apparent to the reader as to where that treads and how it relates to what's being said here.

To this end and more, what makes ignorant compassion such an incredible snare as a perspective is that the ignorance is DEFENDED with the emotional momentum that is directing that sense of compassion away from the infection towards the wound. "What infection?" Why are you talking about that infection thing when there's this wound? How dare you not deal with the wound that's right here in front of us? The logical thing to do is to deal with this wound! What the fuck are you talking about with this infection business?? There is no infection! You're distracting us from this wound! Look!! Don't you care? What's your problem?!?
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As problems go, this is a major one we face right now in the larger social arena. Many are very entrenched in their sense of "one-dimensional politics plus compassion" that the big picture of wound-PLUS-infection can barely be discussed, let alone understood, in the political, cultural, historical, and religious arenas of conversation. Again, there's the personal aspect of course, but I speak of the perspective to a more expanded extent because I am seeing it in society broadly enough to try to address it at that level. In that sense, what fuels ignorant compassion even more strongly is the connecting aspect of shared beliefs and perspectives.

When people organize in groups, companies, movements, cities, states, and even whole nations, to work together compassionately for a cause, that can be a very powerful, worthwhile and effective endeavour. But when that compassionate organizing is done in ignorance, and there is a "collective ignorant compassion" at work, imagine the scope and scale of the infection that is being ignored and how difficult it is to cut through the wall of justified (and unknowing) ignorance that is now fueled by people's sense of belonging and shared caring. How astronomical is that of a barrier to come to terms with for anyone involved? It is an enormous, dangerous, and yet unrecognized pit, sending a swath of momentum, action, and resources away from the depth in which the infection exists, to focus on the wound that all involved believe to be the sole problem, and anyone who pipes up? They're not part of Team Compassion.

Lately, the overall sense of compassion that people are expressing is audible. But so is their ignorance. The compassion aspect can be discussed at length in the social arena. The ignorance aspect? Not so much, for all of the reasons already mentioned. And the two together, ignorance and compassion, is a deadly combination to confront directly, and sometimes there is no other way because an issue encompasses both. In fact, some very important issues lately encompass both. But try discussing it like that, even to intelligent, caring people who simply don't see what's going on. Talk about the compassion without the ignorance, and it's being ignorant. Talk about the ignorance without the compassion, and it's being uncompassionate. It's an awful catch-22. How arrogant is it to even talk about both together, right? How uncompassionate is it to point the finger and say that someone's sense of compassion may be built on some aspect of ignorance?

Well, it's not. The long and short of it is this, and if this offends anyone out there who actually managed to reach this point of the discussion, maybe you need it. If you are a caring, compassionate person that can see the problems, wounds, and injuries that others are having to deal with or have had to deal with in one form or another, and are maybe willing to act to help directly, organize to work with others, or communicate issues to raise awareness, I and a great many others are with you 100%.

But if you're going to run full speed with that burning sense of compassion without stepping out of the emotional momentum that drives your sense of compassion in order to listen, look, observe, deduce, consider, discuss, or otherwise try and make actual sense of what may be the root problem to which your compassion is being directed, you may want to take a deep breath and a gigantic step back for a moment. Not easy. I know that's not easy at all, because you care, and I know you care, because I care as well. But by now, you can maybe see why engaging this is so absolutely necessary, because wounds can have infections, and those infections can be tough to identify, and even if we identify them, trying to cure them can be very trying, especially at levels that affect whole societies, belief systems, shared awareness and worldviews. It goes without saying that ignoring this, and continuing to ignore this, will have consequences that will, eventually, become apparent. And will it be too late by then to merely have a discussion about it?

~DW