Kindness as a Signifier of Intelligence
We survived as a species by
being suspicious of things we aren’t familiar with.
In order to be kind, we have to shut down that animal instinct and
force our brain to travel a different pathway. Empathy and
compassion are evolved states of being. They require the mental
capacity to step past our most primal urges. I’m here to tell you
that when someone’s path through this world is marked with acts of
cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society.
They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first
instinct. They never forged new mental pathways to overcome their
own instinctual fears. And so, their thinking and problem-solving
will lack the imagination and creativity that the kindest people
have in spades.