Is there a rise in sloppy sentimentalism, and a “compassion culture”, growing in this country? The former editor of The Telegraph and the Evening Standard, seventy-something historian, Sir Max Hastings, seems to think so. He spoke said about the pandemic recently on the BBC Radio 4 “World at One” programme:
“We mustn’t, as the older folks, worry about the consequence, the ideas, of our getting ill or even dying for our own sakes because we have had so much that we have no grounds to complain. What we must worry about is not becoming a dead weight on the NHS. Where compassion culture has taken hold. We don’t face the fact that all these stupendous sums of spending that are coming up, they’ve got to be paid for by somebody. And I for one, when I pop my clogs, I hate the idea that my children, my grandchildren are going to be the ones who pay.”
In one sense this might be thought of as a selfless, perhaps even noble, sentiment. I have no way of knowing what his children and grandchildren think of him making this statement, one would hope he has. Would his children be ready to sacrifice a few more years with their loved one in exchange for a few pounds off their future tax bills, I wonder?
It would be easy at this point to dismiss Hastings as an insensitive, compassionless individual who has somehow failed to connect with his emotions, or at least those of his family. But, it seems this is not so. After the Death of Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh he appeared on “Any Questions”, another BBC Radio 4 programme, here is part of what he said:
“We took the Queen and Prince Philip for granted.
The dreadful loneliness that must afflict the Queen, because to be royal, it is almost impossible, you can’t really have friends. Yes you can have people with whom you spend time, but one of the things about being royal is that royals almost without exception feel that nobody else could possibly share their experience, their lives, and they’ve nobody to talk to, they’ve nobody to confide in, but of course the Queen has councillors and the Queen has friends of whom she spends time with […] all our thoughts go out to the Queen, but who has she got to talk to now about her unique predicament? And Prince Philip was the only person with whom she could discuss the situation. And that poor woman, to whom we owe so much, her loneliness in this circumstance and it is something that’s one of many, many reasons that most of us, thank goodness, that we are lucky enough not to be royal is because the dreadful loneliness of being royal in general and especially of being the Queen. […] by gosh, I will be praying for the Queen’s welfare more fervently than I have for years.”
It would be hard to disagree with him in his heartfelt and quite moving response to, “that poor woman”, the Queen’s predicament. I am going to resist the temptation to make a cheap jibe about hypocrisy, because this raises a fascinating question about feelings. Which feelings should we value and which not?
Should we empathise more with a high-status individual whom, because of their media prominence, we feel we know rather than some ordinary anonymous person who we’ve never heard of? Hastings might point to the Queen’s commitment to her role of monarch, her quiet dignity and the public service to which she has dedicated her life. But many other people might well have admirable qualities having dedicated their lives to their respective trade or profession, and to their families. While the Queen might certainly suffer dreadful loneliness so will tens of thousands of people bereaved by the pandemic who are now forced to live on their own. Isn’t this the very time that we should be promoting a “compassion culture”?
Should there really be a hierarchy of feeling? Is the compassion we feel for a fluffy puppy of a lower “status” than the feelings we have for our most exalted leaders? Feelings are just feelings aren’t they? Perhaps people like Hastings miss the point when they denigrate the so called “compassion culture”. Here it seems they are revealing an interesting aspect of human nature. We don’t just have feelings about real people, whether they are still living or not, we also have feelings about feelings themselves. Perhaps Hastings and those who share his views should realise that feelings about other people’s feelings should count for less than feelings for real actual beings, whether they are victims of the pandemic, their loved ones, or other people in distress for whatever reason.
This is why we must value the rights and feelings of all human beings, indeed those of all other sentient beings. To lose contact with our compassion is a step towards the failure of empathy that has characterised all the human generated evils, like war and genocide, that have so profoundly destroyed life and soured the quality of life of millions around the world. Perhaps this is something on which the historian in Hastings should reflect.
Peter D Fisher 