Podcast Summary: "The Empathic Civilization"

Podcast: LSE Public Lectures and Events
Date: March 15, 2010
Guest Speaker: Jeremy Rifkin
Host: LSE Film and Audio Team

Overview

This episode features Jeremy Rifkin presenting the key arguments from his book, The Empathic Civilization. Rifkin explores the urgent environmental, economic, and existential challenges facing humanity and outlines his vision for a new stage of civilization built on empathy, distributed energy, and a shift in consciousness. The lecture blends history, neuroscience, economics, and social theory to propose that only by broadening our empathic capacities—fueled by technological and energy revolutions—can we avoid disaster and create a sustainable global society.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Humanity at a Turning Point

(01:27 – 06:00)

• Rifkin asserts that humanity faces a "seminal turning point" and possible extinction due to unsustainable resource use.
• Cites that humans, less than 1% of the Earth’s biomass, now consume 24% of global photosynthetic output.
• Two world events exemplify this crisis:
  • The 2008 oil spike ($147 a barrel), which triggered economic collapse.
  • The failure of world leaders at the 2009 Copenhagen Summit to agree on carbon controls despite impending mass extinction risks.

Quote:

“We represent less than 1% of the entire biomass of the Earth… We’re currently using 24% of all the photosynthesis in the planet. We’ve become monsters.” — Jeremy Rifkin (02:05)

2. Outdated Models of Human Nature

(06:00 – 17:00)

• Rifkin critiques Enlightenment ideas still shaping today’s politics and economics, e.g., Locke’s blank slate, Smith’s self-interest, Bentham’s utilitarianism, and Freud’s libido theory.
• Contrasts these with new discoveries in neuroscience (mirror neurons) and developmental psychology, showing humans are biologically wired for empathy, not merely self-interest.

Memorable Moment:

“Is that baby born in sin and depraved? Is that baby a rational, calculated, detached agent... Is that baby first of all looking for self interest and pleasure over pain and utility?... I know, it’s silly, isn’t it?” — Jeremy Rifkin (11:15)

3. Mirror Neurons & Homo Empathicus

(17:00 – 22:30)

• Describes the discovery of mirror neurons ("empathy neurons"): when we observe another's emotions or pain, our brains respond as if we’re experiencing it ourselves.
• Asserts humans are "softwired for affection and relationship," coining the term Homo empathicus.
• Empathy is not utopian; it’s born from the existential recognition of life’s fragility and is grounded in solidarity.

Quote:

“There is no empathy in heaven... Because in heaven, utopia, there’s no mortality, no suffering... Empathy is grounded in a very, very different reality.” — Jeremy Rifkin (20:24)

4. Can Empathy Scale to the Global Level?

(22:30 – 26:00)

• Rifkin asks if we can extend empathy beyond kin, religion, and nation—towards the entire human race and the biosphere.
• Suggests each great leap in energy and communication technology (from Sumerian agriculture and cuneiform, through print and the Industrial Revolution) has also broadened empathic identification—to tribe, religion, nation, and potentially now to the global family.

5. The Empathy–Entropy Paradox

(26:00 – 29:40)

• Outlines a historic paradox: as civilizations grow more complex (and empathetic), they also consume more energy, leading to increasing entropy and risk of collapse.
• Our global, digital civilization creates "empathic surges" (e.g., the rapid global response to Haiti’s earthquake), but also pushes us toward climate catastrophe.

Quote:

“It really is a bittersweet paradox. Right at the time we can sense that we may be part of the human family, we can smell the possibility of extinction.” — Jeremy Rifkin (29:20)

6. The Third Industrial Revolution

(29:40 – 38:30)

• Explains the emerging convergence between distributed ICT (Internet, mobile devices) and distributed renewable energy as the “third industrial revolution.”
• Outlines a European Commission-endorsed roadmap consisting of:
  1. Massive rollout of distributed renewables (solar, wind, geothermal, small hydro).
  2. Retrofitting buildings into micro power plants (“every building a power plant”).
  3. Hydrogen storage for intermittent renewables.
  4. An “intergrid” for energy sharing—modeled after the internet, enabling distributed, peer-to-peer energy markets.
• Hopes this will foster a distributed, cooperative form of capitalism ("cooperative socialism").

Quote:

“[In the third industrial revolution] we call this distributed capitalism. It’s actually also called cooperative socialism… it flattens capitalism, it makes it lateral.” — Jeremy Rifkin (36:45)

7. Empathy as Human Progress: Historical Perspective

(38:30 – 42:00)

• Technological and shifts in consciousness reinforce one another, e.g., the invention of mirrors and perspective art in the Renaissance led to greater introspection and thus deeper empathy.
• Shows how today’s young people are being taught (often unknowingly) a biospheric paradigm, understanding their impact on global systems and empathizing with distant others and species.

Memorable Moment:

“What really hit me was the YouTube video of the polar bear and cub last year... Everyone empathized with that bear, mother and cub, because this could be us. That’s empathy for our fellow creatures.” — Jeremy Rifkin (41:35)

8. Urgency and the Call to Action

(42:00 – 45:30)

• Rifkin is involved in practical energy transition master plans in Europe (notably Rome, Monaco, Utrecht, Germany, Spain).
• Warns these transformations are happening, but too slowly in the face of a narrowing climate and resource crisis.
• Emphasizes the need for a “global conversation” about human nature and the social contract, centered on empathy and collective quality of life.

Audience Q&A Highlights

Q1: Global Empathy and Exclusion

(47:25 – 52:57)

• Question: Is the expansion of empathy limited to the privileged 10% with access to resources and technology?
• Rifkin’s Response: Distributed technologies can democratize access from the bottom up, unlike old elite energy models. The key is redefining happiness from individual accumulation to collective quality of life.
• Notable Quote:

  “In biosphere politics, it’s one community, not several. There’s only one quality of life for everyone.” (51:37)

Q2: “Maps” of Consciousness & Political Theory

(52:57 – 56:45)

• Question: Are there integrative frameworks (“maps”) that combine ecology, psychology, cosmology, and politics?
• Rifkin’s Response: Cites his interdisciplinary approach and the rise of systems theory, the Gaia hypothesis—shifting from autonomy to relationship, from market equality to empathy as the basis for democracy.
• Notable Quote:

  “Real democracy is empathy... That’s the ultimate democracy. Let’s rethink political theory based on an empathic frame of reference.” (54:27)

Q3: Agriculture and Ecosystem Restoration

(56:45 – 61:19)

• Question: Why does focus remain on clean tech and not distributed agriculture and ecosystem resilience?
• Rifkin’s Response: Supports distributed, organic, sustainable agriculture, embedding it within broader urban renewal (“biosphere parks” like in Rome). Praises non-GMO, marker-assisted selection and the slow food movement.
• Notable Quote:

  “We need a distributed, ecological, sustainable agriculture that’s in tandem with the dynamics of the ecosystems... It’s not complicated.” (59:30)

Q4: Retrofitting Existing Infrastructure

(61:19 – 64:47)

• Question: How feasible is retrofitting vs. rebuilding infrastructure for the post-carbon age?
• Rifkin’s Response: Retrofitting is extremely challenging, especially in dense, historic cities, but rapid technological progress (e.g., thin-film solar, kinetic energy capture) helps. Calls for political will to shift subsidies and level the playing field.

Q5: On Empathy and the Inspiration for the Book

(64:47 – 67:09)

• Question: What inspired Rifkin to write The Empathic Civilization and frame the empathy-entropy paradox?
• Rifkin’s Response: Realized over years (and earlier books) that the convergence of energy and communication shapes consciousness; credits collective intellectual currents and calls on the upcoming generation to further the work.

Memorable Quotes

• On Human Nature

  “If we are born depraved, irrational, calculating, detached, autonomous, self-interested, materialistic... I suspect we’re doomed.” — Jeremy Rifkin (11:27)

• On Empathy

  “Empathy is the real invisible hand of civilization.” (26:33)

• On Hope & Motivation

  “I hope I’m dead wrong about all this… I think your generation has a tremendous opportunity and challenge.” (39:07)

Notable Moments with Timestamps

• Oil shock and its wider implications — 03:00–06:00
• Critique of Enlightenment and Freud — 10:00–12:00
• Mirror neurons and 'Homo Empathicus' — 17:00–22:00
• Energy and communication revolutions in history — 22:00–29:00
• Empathy–Entropy paradox explained — 29:20–31:40
• Third Industrial Revolution road map — 32:00–38:00
• Distributed agriculture and urban renewal — 57:31–61:19

Closing Thoughts

Rifkin leaves the LSE audience with an urgent call: Our greatest chance for survival and flourishing is through the conscious extension of empathy—across borders, species, and the biosphere. It’s not utopian, it’s existential: empathy is our evolutionary strength. We must radically rethink education, business, governance, and daily life to align with this empathic foundation, or risk the collapse of civilization itself.

Ultimate Message:

“Empathy allows us to transcend ourselves and be engaged in the mystery of life, the awe of it, by being in solidarity with another being... If we let the primary drive squares, we won’t create a perfect world... But at least we’ll create a world where we can begin to appreciate another’s life as if it were our own. That’s the ultimate democratization experience.” — Jeremy Rifkin (45:26; 66:30)

For listeners eager to delve deeper, Rifkin’s book and ongoing European industrial master plans provide a blueprint for the empathic, biosphere-conscious civilization he envisions.