The world is a polarized place. Our differences, however, may be biological as much as ideological.

Fact No. 1: People with autism have trouble empathizing with other people. They simply don’t identify tricky non-verbal cues and, as a result, can’t share in someone else’s happiness or sadness. (An overly simple explanation.)

Fact No. 2: Autism isn’t absolute. It’s a range, with some people living in virtual self-containment while others have a limited ability to pick up on other people’s feelings.

Hypothesis 1: Hyper-empathizers also exist.

If there are different levels of autism, it logically follows that empathy exists in a range. Perhaps empathy comes in a bell-shaped curve, and the flipside to severe autism is severe empathizing. What if some people empathize so much that they truly feel everyone else’s pain? These people can almost literally “walk in your shoes.”

We don’t talk about higher levels of empathy because we – society, most religions and families – value empathy. It keeps us moving in the same direction and personifies “love they neighbor as thyself.” It’s a positive trait – the more the better.

Hypothesis 2: This hard-wired thinking in everyone’s brain – empathizers versus non-empathizers – accounts for a lot of society’s diversity.

In theory – and without a stitch of data to back it up – let’s assume most people are roughly equal on the empathy scale, falling somewhere in the negative-5-percent to positive-5-percent range. It’s a subtle difference, but for those outside the range – say a +10E and -10E (I just made up the acronym-nicknames for people outside a 10 percent range) could make a huge difference in society.

Let’s call the -10Es Republicans and the +10Es Democrats.

Don’t go. This isn’t a political discussion.

An individual who feels everyone else’s pain, the +10Es, might want more social programs, such as universal healthcare, that help others. In part, it’s because +10Es feel everyone else’s pain; but they could also be minimizing (they hope) personal suffering by solving other people’s problems.

On the other hand, a -10E might take a more pragmatic, dollars-and-sense look at the healthcare issue. Can we afford universal healthcare? What’s the impact on other government expenses? Does it fit into my global view of our country or world?

This empathizer argument isn’t a magic pill that explains diversity or even polarized opinions. It’s simply a piece of our can’t-agree-on-anything lives. Still, the high profile points would be:

• +10Es hold society together. They’re the glue that keeps everyone working toward the same end. They settle arguments. They say, “Can’t we all just get along?”

• -10Es make America work, at least with capitalism. A logical +10E CEO might agree to fire 20 percent of his employees during a recession, but it would kill him as he worried about their families; -10Es, while not heartless, could pull it off without losing a night’s sleep.

• +10Es are glorified by society but they’re not rewarded. Traditional helping-others careers such as teachers, nurses and even motherhood rank near the bottom of the economic barrel. If someone needs to help others, it’s assumed, actually helping others is part of their reward. Money isn’t as important.

• -10Es often succeed phenomenally. They don’t take criticism personally; they “do what it takes” to get ahead; and they see other people’s pain as the way life works.

Hypothesis 3: Society doesn’t necessarily need empathy and more of it. Those people are quietly out there. It needs a balanced number of 10-uppers and 10-downers. Without the former, it’s not a unit; without the latter, it doesn’t progress.

Summation 1: If this theory is true, Republicans and Democrats should sit around a campfire, hold hands and talk about their feelings. They should acknowledge differences in the way they see the world, note that each outlook plays an important role, and try to find a moderate ground on issues that impact both a bottom line and people’s lives.

Hypothesis 4: Summation 1, even if valid, won’t happen anytime soon.

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