In a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast, Elon Musk said:
“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy. The empathy exploit. They’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response. And I think empathy is good, but you need to think it through and not just be programmed like a robot.”
Musk’s statement implies that he believes empathy somehow distinguishes Western civilization from other civilizations, which is, of course, false. Rather, empathy is a characteristic of mentally healthy human beings in that a lack of empathy can be a definitional symptom of narcissism, sociopathy, and psychopathy. In another incongruity, Musk compares humans who act with empathy to programmed robots, when instilling empathy in robots would be a major milestone of artificial intelligence. Musk is supposed to know something about AI; he must have forgotten his Blade Runner.
Since robots do not have empathy, it is unclear, then, how Musk is distinguishing between the kind of empathy he finds “good,” and the kind that is a “bug” (i.e., the imaginary kind that causes one to behave like a fictional empathetic robot).
Musk has in the past alluded to being a cultural Christian—i.e., not religious but believing the teachings of Jesus are “good and wise”: “[Christian beliefs] result in the greatest happiness for humanity, considering not just the present, but all future humans… I’m actually a big believer in the principles of Christianity. I think they’re very good.”
The Golden Rule of doing to others as you would have them do to you—although not unique by any means to Western Civilization—is a fundamental principle of Christianity. It is a rule based in empathy.
Loving your neighbor as yourself (one of Christ’s two great commandments) is the essence of empathy. Providing for “the least of these” (the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and prisoners) as though you saw in them Christ Himself is not a bug or an exploit, but how Christ judges those who are followers of Him and those who are not.
To me, when you decry empathy, you have outed yourself as one of the baddies, but I do not claim to know Musk’s heart, and he has a pronounced tendency to utter ill-considered statements. Regardless of whether his words were sincere, however, those who do follow Christ ought not excuse them. They are an attack on the most fundamental of Christian beliefs and cannot be reconciled with calling yourself a Christian.