"The fundamental weaknesses of Western civilization is empathy." (Elon Musk, 2025)

 

On the problem of empathy.

On the problem of empathy. That was the title of Edith Stein's dissertation/book, first published in 1916. Stein a German philosopher, was a Jewish woman who embraced Catholicism, entering the Discalced Carmelites not long after her baptism, where she lived a contemplative life until her arrest and murder by the Nazis in Auschwitz. For the sake of brevity I'll lift some quotes from other sources to help define Stein's theory, in order to contrast it with something Elon Musk said regarding empathy, which has garnered so much attention.

"The fundamental weakness of Western Civilization is empathy."

- Elon Musk

As someone on X pointed out, that's very similar to Nazi propaganda. Jon Schwarz: "Elon Musk's statement on Joe Rogan that "The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit" is straight out of a 1942 Joseph Goebbel's column titled "Don't Be Too Fair!""

First of all, what does empathy mean?

>Empathy is an immediate and structural part of being human.<

>Empathy as a phenomenon of the experience of others

The term ’empathy’ was created in 1872 from the German word Einfühlung, which means ‘to feel within oneself’. Under the direction of Edmund Husserl, Edith Stein, in her doctoral thesis entitled The Problem of Empathy (1915)[1] , explored this topic from the perspective of “the phenomenology of perception”[2] . According to Stein, the relevance of this approach lies in the possibility of “penetrating into their essence”[3] the phenomena of reality, starting from their perception (sensory and intellectual), and then from their manifestation to human consciousness[4] . In other words, ‘it is a question of understanding and knowing the reality that surrounds us in all its “phenomena”‘[5] .

In the light of her studies, Stein defines empathy as ‘those fundamental inner acts that enable one person to perceive the experience of another’[6] . Or it is the “capacity to experience what the other person is experiencing”[7] . From a phenomenological point of view, empathy thus allows one to penetrate, describe, understand what is happening within oneself in the face of another’s experience[8] , in relation to the motivations, feelings and values of the other .[9]< - Fr. Mario Boies, C.Ss.R.

Stein's work and the subject matter is too dense and beyond my competence to do an entire post about the subject. Suffice it to know, empathy is what makes us human. Musk and the New Right, Catholics among them, see it as weakness. Who can forget clergy and laity reacting to Pope Francis' calls to care about others, to recognize the humanity of others? To be kind. To show mercy. They called it "the church of nice". They have become easy prey of the New Right, Trumpism/MAGA and Musk.

You who look for the Antichrist should remember what John said about that. In 1 John 2:18–19, “Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come..." Many have come, many are here. So many, even the elect may be led astray and not know it. To be sure, it is not the Pope.

I came across this as well: Hannah Arendt: “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.”

We see it here and especially in Ukraine. As well as Gaza - where on earth have a people been so de-humanized and literally exterminated than Gaza. With wicked plans to make the place a luxurious resort for the wealthy elite. The cold hearted exploit Gaza, Ukraine and any other country whose citizens they perceive as non-human.

Musk claims are antichrist, antichristian, transhumanist garbage.

March 8, 2025 quote regarding Putin's bombardment today:

“He’s doing what anyone else in his place would.” That is, committing crimes against humanity. There is the new U.S. in a single sentence. Trump not only understands but has empathy for the need of the aggressor to commit aggression.

The War in Ukraine and the Errors of Russia

 

+Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God.+

[Editor's Note: I am reposting this from my FB page here, since I intended it to post on the blog for my archives. The information does not add to nor detract from the official documents of Sr. Lucia nor the Holy See regarding the events at Fatima, nor is there any link to the so-called Fatimist conspiracy theories or traditionalists with their claims of a different message/secrets and so on. Bishop Sus adds nothing to the the message either - he simply explains how the Church in Ukraine understands the relevance of Our Lady's message to the current war.]

Something Dawn Eden Goldstein wrote.

Dawn Eden Goldstein did a series of posts recently regarding Fatima. Normally Fatima isn't discussed very much online, among some academics and those who accept Magisterial definitions of the 1917 Apparitions and subsequent message. This may be due in part to a few traditional groups who reject Vatican authority and conclusions regarding details of the events. Frequently, they reject the Pope as well as Vatican II reforms, yet remain in communion with Rome.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised Dawn thought of the message of Fatima in relationship to 'the errors of Russia' in the current climate of aggression and influence Putin exerts over the West and in particular, our current President and the Administration he has set up.

Dawn was a guest at the Prayer Breakfast VP Vance spoke at last week. Her posts on X formed her response to that encounter.

> I was present at

@JDVance's speech yesterday at the

@NatCathPrBrkfst

.And I watched later as Vance belied his pious peacemaking pose by berating the president of the country that Pope Francis has repeatedly called "martyred Ukraine" (https://vaticannews.va/.../pope-on-ukraine-war-a-painful...).

>[ Specific remark from Trump War Room regarding the speech:

Feb 28

Vice President @JDVance: “When President Trump talks about the need to bring peace, whether it’s in Russia and Ukraine or in the Middle East, we have to recognize that as a policy oriented toward saving lives and carrying out one of Christ's most important Commandments.” Vance's address was on the importance of protecting religious liberty.]<

Responding to his statement explaining that he was still learning about Catholicism, although the door was open to talk with him, Dawn wrote that she would like to tell him about the Third Secret of Fatima.

I was pleasantly surprised Dawn brought that up online, especially since I feel it remains relevant in our day. I believe Pope Francis does as well, as did Pope Benedict.

Dawn posted some excerpts of the secret with links to the Holy See documentation. She quoted Sr. Lucia, one of the seers, now deceased, who decades later wrote: "The 3rd part of the secret is ...conditioned by whether we accept or not what the Message itself asks of us. ... Since we did not heed this appeal of the Message, we see that it has been fulfilled; Russia has invaded the world with her errors. ..." If we have not yet seen [the prophecy's complete fulfillment], we are going towards it little by little with great strides, if we do not reject the path of sin, hatred, revenge, injustice, violations of the rights of the human person, immorality & violence, etc. ..."

I let Dawn know I thought she was right in making the connection between Fatima and current events regarding Russian aggression and expansion, not to mention 'infiltration' in the West. (I for one believe it has been going on since the onset of the Cold War.)

Notes from an interview with an Archbishop.

That said - this is one long introduction to what a Ukranian Archbishop had to say, pointing to Fatima, suggesting we are now seeing fulfillment of aspects of what the Blessed Virgin foretold at Fatima and later, to Lucia in the Monastery.

From Bishop Stepan Sus, Curial Bishop of Kyiv-Halyč, Ukraine, Titular Bishop of Zygris:

Bishop Sus: First of all, we understand that Russia will not respect our Church. We see that from what is happening in the occupied territories. The Ukrainian Catholic Church was expelled from the territories. The priests were persecuted or imprisoned, so it means that for Russia, respect for other churches, respect for human dignity and life in a democracy do not exist. We don’t relate to Russian points of view, and so we hope that Ukraine will stay, and we will defend ourselves as much as we can. For the last few years, Russian forces moved very slowly in the Donbas area, and we lost approximately 15% of our territory. But we hope that that will be the end of this war.

Ukrainians are praying every day for peace. That’s our main intention because we understand that prayer is the weapon of Christians. We need to defend ourselves, our families and our homes, but at the same time, the most successful weapon of the faithful is prayer. We pray a national rosary on our Ukrainian Catholic television every evening at eight. It is live, with approximately 550,000 people gathering to pray. Everyone understands that it is necessary to pray and ask God for peace and pray for our soldiers, wounded soldiers and civilian people, and also pray for our migrants, people who had to leave their homes.

For us, this message of the Virgin Mary of Fatima (ie, the errors of Russia) is, of course, some sign to understand the conditions of this war. If the Virgin Mary talked about the conversion of somebody or nations, it means that this group of people can bring something dangerous, something not acceptable for us, and could be a source of evil. Our soldiers who were captured experienced torture and other terrible things. One soldier mentioned that he saw the real face of evil. I understand that today, evil has a human mask so that we can have different imaginations of evil, and sometimes the source of evil can be human beings. So that might be the vision that Mary foresaw with this war, which is caused by Russia. Russians say that they want to reestablish the Soviet Union, but from a new point of view, like the Russian world, which is dangerous because everybody knows how it was.< - Bishop Stepan Sus

I've always agreed with Sr. Lucia's statement, " If we have not yet seen [the prophecy's complete fulfillment], we are going towards it little by little with great strides." It seems to me we are there.