The Aspen Institute

Empathy and Anger in Politics

We tend to assume that, in politics, rage is bad and empathy is good. But is that true? What are the uses of rage and the limitations of empathy? Is rage necessary to spur people to action? Is there a point at which empathy is no longer appropriate—when it risks tolerating the intolerable? Is straightforward rage sometimes more respectful than empathy, which can slide into condescension? Can you be empathetic with someone else’s rage without feeling rage yourself?

Seminar and panel moderated by Larissa MacFarquhar, author and staff writer at The New Yorker.

Panel featuring Isaac Chotiner, staff writer at Slate and host of the ‘I Have to Ask’ podcast; Jonathan Mahler, author and staff writer at The New York Times Magazine.