longbough

Pity?

... perhaps, but what's the point?

Are you going to write their life story, give them money or pay for years of psychological and social counseling? You don't need pity for that ... you just time, resources and initiative.

Indulging in "pity" is just an opportunity for self-aggrandizing pontification.

I am a doctor working with serial killers, gangsters, rapists, child molesters and sociopaths of every kind ... when I talk to a patient I often offer advice and resources for self-motivated insight. Sometimes I make a difference. Often times I don't.

Bald "pity" is a worthless practice, as far as I'm concerned. It makes about as much sense as writing a folk-song about them. When someone wants to indulge in "pity" without the initiative to make a difference - that's when they become a "bleeding heart."

I don't mean to take shots at the OP. Let's just say I've argued the notion of "pity" before with highly opinionated folks who have never (nor will ever) encounter, experience nor understand the complexities of sociopathy in their personal lives.

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"I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. Thus when my eldest son asked me what he should have done, had he been present when I was almost fatally assaulted in 1908, whether he should have run away and seen me killed or whether he should have used his physical force which he could and wanted to use, and defended me, I told him that it was his duty to defend me even by using violence." - Mahatma Ghandi