Rational Compassion

Applied Empathy (imho Compassion)

• John Ford, Empathy and the Art of Tracking: How Mediators Follow the Trail of Emotion, Mediate.com, 2026
• John Ford, Empathy Requires Us To, EmpathySet, 2021
• Ford et al., What do displays of empathy do in palliative care consultations?, ResearchGate / Loughborough University, 2019

Neuroscience

• Empathy triggers internal pain.
  • Klimecki et al., Cerebral Cortex, 2014
• Compassion drives proactive resilience.
  • Klimecki et al., Cerebral Cortex, 2014

Macro-Policy Breakdown

• Empathy ignores collective math.
  • Paul Bloom, Against Empathy, 2016
• Empathy breeds out-group hostility.
  • Paul Bloom, Against Empathy, 2016

The Human Exploit

• Individual salience blinds systems.
  • Small, Loewenstein, & Slovic, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 2007
• Architectures commodify human reflexes.
  • Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 2019

Political views

• Jacinda Ardern, A Different Kind of Power, 2025
• Value-based pragmatism