Status hierarchies are, of course, designed to create inequalities. Status is about rankings and the claiming of authority over others. Every society establishes various boundaries of exclusion. A highly stratified society generally is low on empathetic consciousness because such societies are segmented between so many status categories that the ability to empathize beyond one’s own group, both up and down the hierarchy, is limited.
We are segmented as hell and it’s actually kind of “in” to segment life even more these days. Which means even less empathy and well, we directly see this every day: people show less and less compassion, it seems. Segmentation nurtures a lack of tolerance which reinforces segmentation.
Oral consciousness relies on hearing, while script consciousness relies on sight. This difference alone accounts for the profound change in human consciousness that distinguishes a written culture from an oral one. Hearing is the most internalizing of the senses. While touch, smell, and taste also penetrate the interior of one’s being, hearing is a more powerful experience as anyone who has ever enjoyed music knows so well. Hearing is a deeply participatory experience. It engulfs. One can immerse oneself in sound.
Vision, by comparison, is the least intimate and most abstract of all the senses. Sight isolates and dissects. As St. Louis University professor emeritus Walter Ong observes: “A typical visual idea is clarity and distinctness, a taking apart…. The auditory ideal, by contrast, is harmony, a putting together.”
I mean, wow. It makes so much sense. It makes one think about the hundreds of hours per month —and increasing— of us using our vision instead of listening to each other. Texting is conversational but it’s still vision. It’s still about dissecting instead of putting together, isn’t it? It’s not all bad, as sight allows for reading, which allows oneself to have thoughts and hear her/his/their own inner voice.
As usual, we need both in a balanced way but thanks to Big Tech, we super over-indulged with vision. The dance between all those actors (groups, societies, companies) and our primary senses fascinates me.
(The book is The Empathic Civilization by Jeremy Rifkin)