Since I was in high school, my moral tendencies have hinged on the practice of consideration, one I've seen referred to as mindfulness elsewhere. The idea was that people wouldn't hurt each other if they really knew the consequences of their actions, or I'd they did at least it would be done responsibly.
I think now that what I've been advocating is empathy. Not the passive sort which we describe people as either having or not, but the active, sustained effort to understand why another person feels as they do. It is so very easy to dismiss someone as crazy, stupid, ignorant or evil, but that's because these are passive labels, applicable only to people you don't care to explore any further but instead wish would change.
But we all rationalize, so at any given moment it is very likely that a person's actions make sense To Them. They have a brain very similar to yours, a mind shaped by the human cultures we all share, a life of seeking the same basic needs. And this very same propensity for dismissive stereotyping, I might add :l
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