Unfortunately, as Robert MacNamara says in Errol Morris' Fog of War, empathy is not an American trait. We are, after all, "exeptional in every possible way" and therefore the envy of the world.

Certainly, our children could benefit enormously from empathy instruction. However... Teaching empathy could very well be the next conservative hot button issue. (Ironic, because it's exactly what Jesus would do.) Still, conservative parents will do anything to protect their precious babes from feeling uncomfortable (or, in their lingo, "guilty") due to exposure to and awareness of someone else's pain.

Human beings tend to be innately uncomfortable with uncertainty and, at the same time, egocentric and intellectually lazy. It's a very bad combination of native characteristics that leads to extreme religiosity and authoritarianism.