Lately, for reasons that simply boggle the mind, there has been a lot of talk about kings and emperors and authoritarians of all character and class (or lack thereof). The world seems to be falling back into its old “comfortable” ways of abdication of responsibility to a strong “Dear Leader” to pledge one’s fealty and blindly follow without question, and thus without thought. We are experiencing events not seen in nearly 100 years, and many see harsh and staggering parallels with the Weimar Republic just before the fall.

I see this as a terrible yet inevitable inflection point within our global society long in decline, beginning in the late 20th century, but rapidly accelerating since the advent of the internet and social media and the radical polarity and sociopolitical tribalism fomented by unbridled, uncurated, and unlimited global communication. I believe this inflection point presents a fundamental dilemma that will determine the trajectory of our world for years, decades, even centuries to come.

The horns of this critical dilemma present us with two radically divergent paths: one following strong authoritarian leaders into a dystopian society driven by the exclusive Triumph of the Will of sociopathic and psychopathic dictators, oligarchs, and their sycophantic toadies; and a second path leading towards a future with far brighter promise and aspiration. I make no argument for the first option: it is patently abhorrent and utterly hopeless, even for the rich and mighty, as it will lead to inevitable decline, destruction, and decay. So, I’ll just focus on the second path, since anything is better than utter failure and incredible suffering.

This second path is—as all good dilemmas offer—the diametrical opposite of the first. But it’s far more profound than simply choosing between dystopia and utopia. The either/or decision concerns the fundamental character of the people who would make such a choice in the first place or at all; because I believe this is exactly the decisive moment of clarity in which any thoughtful person will choose the second path rather than mindlessly following the first.

What is this second path of utopian wonder, this better way? It is the path of empathy. Simply empathy and nothing more. For without empathy, there is no motivation to choose the better way because choosing the dystopic path faithlessly leads these churlish, antipathetic, and slack-minded fools to temporary gratification and the vacant promise of power, wealth, and comfort. You don’t even need to sell your soul to get admitted; just give up your mind freely and completely to become an subservient sycophant, or pay the $5 million price for your grand Gold Card entrée into the higher levels of this inept and insidious Inferno. If you simply abdicate your power of thought or pony up the pot of gold, you’ll be welcomed to join the rabid ranks of the rancorous and pathetic to follow your DOGE dream of the mindless and hopeless bliss of pure irresponsibility.

But why empathy? Why this particular crucible? Well, simply because empathy provides the capacity to look beyond one’s own immediate needs and desires towards a shared future of common good, shared warmth, and cooperative success. Empathy allows us to consider the Other as someone who suffers and enjoys just like we do, even if the content of those feelings might be completely different than our own. It’s the act itself that lends itself to building something better together, rather than empty and apart.

Within the capacity for empathy, and its ability to look beyond ourselves, we have the capacity to look beyond the immediacy of quotidian life and consider what the future might bring. With the projected perspective of empathy, we may consider the possibilities available to us in companionship and cooperation. Such possibilities as we can actualize and realize together far surpass those we can only achieve alone. Empathy is therefore a successful adaptive strategy for more than just surviving, it is essential for thriving, as well.

It is in our own best interest to employ empathy, not simply because we are more apt to get what we want, but because our quality of life is so much better when we thrive together. Social relationships make us healthier, happier, and more apt to find meaning in our lives. Interpersonal relationships allow us to actualize potentials and realize dreams that we could never accomplish alone. Each and every one of us has had some person in our lives who has opened us up to new possibilities and potentials. Think about all the teachers, coaches, mentors, and friends we have in our lives. Consider how they awoke sleeping potentials dreaming within you, and perhaps you in them, that opened a completely different world of possibilities both for you and for them.

The Maestro Tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, once said, “There are no great students. There are no great teachers. There is only great learning.” We learn because we open ourselves to a new relation with others and within the world. The most profound relations are with other people, but such relations can also be with Nature, or with a new musical instrument or piece of sporting equipment, or a new pet. When we open ourselves to other beings in the world, we open ourselves to new possibilities. And such openness makes us available to entertain options and potentials we never would ever imagine or realize alone.

In opening ourselves with empathy, we open ourselves to the possibilities of other people and put ourselves in their place to imagine their unique perspectives. Because that’s the most intimate and utterly unique thing we have: our own perspective within the world. Nobody shares our perspective, and we never share the perspective of the Other. But with empathy, we can feel what it would be like to share perspectives as we naturally project ourselves into the Other’s position to feel what they would feel. Empathy’s power of projection is truly profound.

This crucial capacity for empathy is fundamental of our very Being, but it must be fostered and fed and grown in order for us to fully enjoy its capacities to heal, to inspire, and to simply feel a real connection with one another. But when it is silenced and questioned and reviled as soft and weak, we shrink from it in shame and fear. This germinates a tortured seed of doubt, mistrust, and eventually hatred that poisons us against the Other and turns them into merely an object, an “it” that we can diminish and dismiss literally without any thought at all.

We are seeing this horrible pathology play out right before us and all around us in the manifested blind hatred of the objectified “other,” the objectified “it” so disturbingly present in far too many emotionally and cognitively damaged people. It is this same group of people (for the most part) that tends to follow that first path towards ruin and despair instead of the empathic path towards a better present and a brighter future. The doubt and fear and hatred incepted within them through a lifetime of degeneration, detrition, and damage has disrupted and warped their inherent sense of empathy for the Other into fear of the other.

We are seeing significant divergence within a Great Sorting of personalities that may even have a basis in genetic markers and physical traits that are reinforced by learning and experience. Certain genes such as MAOA-L (often called the “warrior gene”) correlate with psychopathy, sociopathy, and increased antisocial behavior. Such expressed traits as aggressiveness, tendencies towards authoritarianism, and diminished or absent empathic sense tend to amass together within certain personality types often carrying this genetic marker. Not surprisingly, these personality types tend to gravitate towards authoritarian dynamics and violent expressions without regard for conflict or consequence.

But to the thankful contrary, such expressed traits as empathy and prosocial cooperation and collaboration may have their own genetic markers. Genes related to oxytocin and vasopressin receptors (OXTR, AVPR1A) have been associated with increased empathy and cooperative behaviors. And it will come as no surprise that people with these markers and traits tend to gravitate away from authoritarian styles and regimes and gravitate towards cooperative democracies and communal societies.

While no obvious biological split immediately presents itself, some theorists speculate that cultural divergence—especially with technological and ideological reinforcement—could lead to behavioral “strains” of humanity with diverging moral frameworks. This isn’t a full genetic speciation split, but it could lay the groundwork for future biological divergence if paired with reproductive isolation (e.g., if certain behavioral groups only breed among themselves).

Given the recent sociopolitical polarity and tribalism, we may be seeing the beginnings of a personality based selection process akin to Social Darwinism. The proposal I present here is the sociopolitical and socioeconomic distinction between to ‘species’ of the genus Homo:

• Homo horribilis: a species or subspecies of humans that are becoming particularly greedy, sociopathically aggressive, mindlessly destructive, uncritically accepting, psychopathically competitive, emotionally stunted, and devoid of empathy.

• Homo empathicus: a human species characterized by empathy, care, mindfulness, and projection into the future with a tendency towards cooperation and mutual respect.

At this time, there is no recognized scientific basis for a species-level split between different types of humans based on genetic, social, or political behavior. Modern humans (Homo sapiens) are a single species, and while there is variation in genetics, behavior, and sociopolitical outlooks, these do not constitute a speciation event in evolutionary terms. Neither the proposed species of Homo horribilis nor Homo empathicus are recognized scientific classifications within paleoanthropology or evolutionary biology. However, these terms could be used as valid sociopolitical categories to identify those who should be trusted to protect society and those who should not.

Let Homo horribilis follow their pathetic Emperor down the rabid path to Hell. We empaths who care about one another and the future of our progeny will follow our own Emperor of Empathy to a future filled with possibilities.