In her 2013 essay collection “Regarding the Pain of Others,” author Susan Sontag reflected on the ways people respond to violent imagery.
She made the argument that it isn’t the quantity of images that desensitizes us to the suffering of others, but our feelings of fear and helplessness that cause us to shut down and turn away.
She suggested that compassion without action is not sustainable; it’s a self-serving emotion that “proclaims our innocence as well as our impotence.”
By examining our privilege and the ways in which it may be linked to the suffering of others, we take the first step in effecting meaningful change.
