“You’re on my mind” is a loose figure of speech, until you play charades with your lover in a brain scanner. Then you understand that she is not only on your mind but in your brain, deep. And we know where. We can see you lighting up right in your private parts, right there in your putative mirror neuron system and your ventral medial prefrontal cortex. That’s empathy in action.
During most of our written history there was nothing illegal or immoral about civilized governments systematically ignoring the feelings, rights, and interests of slaves, children, women, and immigrants, to name just a few of the overlooked. And yet during the last century in the United States we’ve found ways to consider these groups worthy of legal protection, fair pay, the vote, equal education, the right to own property—worthy of being treated as human.
