Elvis has left the room !
Or at least is well on his way out the door !
He sang "Don't be cruel to a heart that's true ...
Don't want no other love; Baby, it's still you I'm thinking of."
Dictionary : "Cruel": "willfully causing pain or suffering to others and feeling no concern about it." Some synonyms include; "harsh, merciless, bloodthirsty, hateful, inhumane,vicious and heartless."
"Empathy" by contrast means "the ability to understand and share another person's feelings, thoughts, and experiences by imaginging oneself in their situation." It is foundational for the existence of commonwealth ... "a political community founded for the common good", including the less-healthy, less-wealthy and too often, the less-white. It gives a resounding "YES" to the question "Am I my brother [and sister's] keeper ?" But a society based on self-centeredness ... everyone for themselves and to hell with anyone else ... is, well, Cruel.
Mr. Musk recently called empathy "the fundamental weakness of Western civilization". One news commentator observed that "Elon Musk seems to believe that cruelty is the antidote to empathy."
The American historian, Hannah Arendt, who wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism, noted that "the death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism." Surveying contemporary American
society and politics, David Brooks of the New York Times bluntly noted a "callous tolerance of cruelty."
Recently, despite numerous polls showing opposition, Congress passed a bill that expresses CRUELTY toward large numbers of vulnerable Americans.
A minister friend wrote that the administration is "systematically strip[ping] away social safety nets,
gut[ting] programs meant to care for the elderl
the disabled
the poor
the marginalized
the orphaned and the widow--
the ones God's heart beats fiercest for --
'while they passs a Big Beautiful Bill
that is only beautiful
if your bank account is already overflowing
And to keep you from noticing,
they light fires of distraction. "
Statistics can disguise the full magnitude of human suffering
unless we remember that those statistics represent impacted PEOPLE. .For example:
..To the estimated 85 million people already uninsured, another 17 million will lose health insurance coverage. "Let 'em get a job is frequently offered as a 'reason' to eliminate persons from Medicaid. A U.S. Congresswoman from South Carolina recently expressed that attitude in much coarser terms.
Medicaid "fraud" glosses over the fact that there are MANY reasons why some people cannot work and none imply
laziness
...nursing homes receive approximately two-thirds (2/3) of their support from Medicaid.
...many rural and small town hospitals will be forced to close. Our local hospital has been projected to be among the "likely". Also, see a column in July 6, 2025, New York Times, " 'Tears My Heart to Pieces: North Carolina Braces for Medicaid Cuts" .
...Through no fault nor responsibility of theirs, millions of children will be deprived of nutritional sustenance
...Law-abiding, long-time U.S. residents will increasingly 'disappear' without their Constitional right to due process
being honored. The bill provides for billions of dollars increase in ICE's budget.
Additional examples of cruelty abound: A concentration camp for detaining non-criminal people. And given the brazen name "Alligator Alcatraz", though some have suggested that a more accurate name would be "Alligator Auschwitz". Then there are the not-humorous jokes about what will happen to anyone attempting escape.
Likely, many of those incarcerated could update Elvis's words to "Don't be cruel to a heart that's true; Don't want no other homeland; USA, it's you I'm dreaming of".
"Don't be Cruel !"
Satchel
