Quote of the Day (Annie Dillard, on the Source of Good and Evil)

“In the deeps are the violence and terror of which psychology has warned us. But if you ride these monsters deeper down, if you drop with them farther over the world's rim, you find what our sciences cannot locate or name, the substrate, the ocean or matrix or ether which buoys the rest, which gives goodness its power for good, and evil its power for evil, the unified field: our complex and inexplicable caring for each other, and for our life together here. This is given. It is not learned.”—Pulitzer Prize-winning American essayist, novelist, and memoirist Annie Dillard (1945-2026), “Total Eclipse,” in Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (1982)

TV Quote of the Day (‘30 Rock,’ Anticipating a Current Tech Bro)

Jack Donaghy [played by Alec Baldwin]: “Think like a robot. Be logical and dispassionate.”

Liz Lemon [played by Tina Fey]: “Are you okay?”

Jack: “See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Human empathy. It's as useless as the Winter Olympics.” — 30 Rock, Season 4, Episode 4, “Audition Day,” original air date Nov. 5, 2009, teleplay by Tina Fey and Matt Hubbard, directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller

Empathy—or, as Elon Musk put it, in a podcast interview with Joe Rogan in late February, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”

And, to answer Liz Lemon’s question above, about both Jack and Elon: No, they’re not okay. Their responses tell you why.

Quote of the Day (Leslie Jamison, on Empathy as a Choice)

“Empathy isn't just something that happens to us - a meteor shower of synapses firing across the brain - it's also a choice we make: to pay attention, to extend ourselves. It's made of exertion, that dowdier cousin of impulse. Sometimes we care for another because we know we should, or because it's asked for, but this doesn't make our caring hollow. This confession of effort chafes against the notion that empathy should always rise unbidden, that genuine means the same thing as unwilled, that intentionality is the enemy of love. But I believe in intention and I believe in work. I believe in waking up in the middle of the night and packing our bags and leaving our worst selves for our better ones.” — American novelist and essayst Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams: Essays (2014)

(The accompanying photo of Leslie Jamison was taken at the 2014 Texas Book Festival, Austin, Texas, on Oct. 24, 2014, by Larry D. Moore.)