Humanity on a Tightrope: Thoughts on Empathy, Family, and Big Changes for a Viable Future [Hardcover]

Paul Ehrlich (Author), Robert Ornstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 16, 2010

When we think of family, we most often think of our sisters and brothers, our cousins and grandparents, rather than our world family or even our community connections. We still identify with our differences more than our similarities, unless it's convenient to do otherwise. Here, two seasoned authors tackle the question of family and what it means to us now and how it might change to help us address the problems that affect us all. Using specific examples throughout the work, they present a unique approach to what it means to belong to one human family. Beginning with a consideration of how the family unit has begun to be defined by allegiances, by common ties and empathy, the authors then discuss the evolution of the family unit and how the "us" vs. "them" mentality gave way to a way of life that separated peoples rather than brought them together. They consider family values, how they arose, developed, were perverted or perfected to suit the family unit's needs, and the confusion that followed. Humanity on a Tightrope focuses on what families and family values are, and how they often create an "us versus them" mentality that is at the root of many of today's most crucial problems from terrorism, racism, and war to the failure of humanity to come to grips with potentially lethal global environmental problems. The book underlines a basic element for solving the human predicament — quickly spreading the domain of empathy. It takes a close look at how we can do that, building on the findings of both social and natural science and using tools ranging from brain imaging to the internet. It explains how civilization is unlikely to persist unless many more people learn to put themselves in the shoes of others to keep society balancing on the tightrope to sustainability - a tightrope suspended over the collapse of civilization.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The authors' hearts are in the right place with this earnest plea to all mankind to develop empathy and embrace the interdependency that connects us all. Ehrlich (The Population Bomb) and Ornstein (The Healing Brain) argue that human behavior is the biggest threat to our collective future and strongly suggest we create less "us" vs. "them" binaries. From environmental conservation to ending consumerism to the pervasive ignorance that feeds xenophobia, they approach their focus through the lenses of anthropology, neuropsychology, and history. The message is repetitive and, while the book promises to offer practical ideas, it often instead provides obvious claims: "There are a lot of big changes needed…" As with all ideas for peace and justice that rightfully stem from understanding that human beings want to be happy, the real challenges come after the preaching to the choir is done. Most readers will already agree with the authors' thesis, and it's hard to imagine that those who might benefit most from what the authors have to say—corporate America, NeoCons, the Taliban, for starters—will listen. (Oct.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Ehrlich, the author of numerous influential environmental books, and award-winning psychologist Ornstein address the need for empathy to maintain the health of civilization. While drawing on a long line of psychological experiments to show the inherent development of family ties and persistent “us vs. them” mentality in human society, the authors also examine the development of the perfect Leave It To Beaver family stereotype and its enduring impact that has extended far beyond pop culture. A focus on family values that never actually existed, this has created a myth that justifies the concept of a different “them” that thwarts attempts at transcending differences. With stark examples such as Rwanda to serve as warnings, Ehrlich and Ornstein segue into chapters on “building the global family.” While political watchers may find it impossible to believe we could ever see beyond the smallest of differences, the authors remain hopeful and offer plenty of evidence that change will come, simply because the twenty-first century requires it. Thoughtful and sincere, this is a solid evidentiary presentation of an all-too-often emotional topic. --Colleen Mondor

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 210 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (November 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1442206489
• ISBN-13: 978-1442206489
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.8 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #338,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent discourse on the role of emphathy in solving collective problems November 22, 2010

By Daniel T. Blumstein

Format:Hardcover

This is an extremely integrative and very thoughtful book that riffs off an important and neglected theme--empathy and, by increasing our collective empathy we can create a global 'family' and cooperate to solve our collective problems.

Addressing the idea from perspectives that include (but are not limited to) neuroscience (via a lucid description of mirror neurons), motherhood (humans are cooperative breeders), and religion, the authors note the importance of empathy in human history. They highlight how increasing empathy may help us solve our environmental and social problems and back away from our impending ecological and environmental collapse.

They repeatedly show how we can re-frame and re-focus contentious situations by encouraging empathy. And, they discuss the horrors that emerge when we lose our empathy--including the major genocides of the mid and late-20th centuries.

The book, while brief, is rich on ideas. Buy one and give one to a friend.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope--Staring us in the face... December 18, 2010

By Joan M. Diamond

Format:Hardcover

Few books have inspired me to "read out loud" and share passages on the first page. Even fewer have inspired a heartfelt drive to share--in the moment--right to the last page. It is a book to read aloud to a friend or privately in a comfortable chair from which you can be transported into a world that has retreated from its current destructive path, escaped the precarious tightrope upon which each of us and Earth balance. Ehrlich and Ornstein have written 120 pages that do just that, a book that tells a story, a story based on science and knowledge, a book that unites humanity.
Global problems, interconnected threats to human security, and complexity theory dominate 21st century writing. These books all begin with the knotty entanglement of the effects of poverty, fundamentalism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, inequity, population, terrorism, ignorance and consumerism and then move toward possible solutions for coping with or managing the complexity. Ehrlich and Ornstein have turned this upside down by beginning with what unites humanity--from our first minutes outside the womb--and argue that if we can return to that natural instinctual empathy , we can find our way out of the morass of threats to humanity and human welfare. By beginning with what unites us and then exploring the threats, they cast new light on what divides us and create hope for retreating from the brink of destruction.
I wish this book had been written a year ago, when my father was alive. He would have greatly enjoyed having this book read to him; it would have connected him with the values and hope for a better world upon which he built his life. By bringing hope for the future, it would have brought peace: he would have insisted that we send copies to all 16 of his grandchildren.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Time for us all to talk November 5, 2010

By noblejoanie

Format:Hardcover

Two of our wise elders, highly respected scientists, look at the enormous challenges humans face through the lens of their long careers and lay out the road map to a path we need to start down right this moment if we hope to solve the species-ending crises facing us and the rest of the planet. Addressing these problems will require us to extend our empathy to all, not just our nearest and dearest. Can we do that?

The authors review the research on how we humans work and apply that to how we might catapult the tribalism and nationalism that blocks us from seeing that our common fate requires cooperative solutions on a global scale. But beyond persuading us we are capable of making these changes, they tackle just how we might get there, what solutions various institutions might enact but more important, how we might harness the nearly instantaneous ways to reach one another to achieve what older efforts have fallen short on. The book is less set of commandments on the one true course but rather offers a methodology, the most interesting and optimistic is MAHB, The Millenium Assessment of Human Behavior, a veritable petri dish for problems solvers.

The book is a bit "My Dinner with Andre", listening in on a chat between two erudite brilliant minds. It's readable, accessible, digestible. Don't let its "brevity" fool you---it may be the most important book they've written, if we read and heed them, that is.