for renewing my faith in humanity. Feeling empathy and compassion for others is what makes us whole human beings. As human beings, our brains are hardwired to feel empathy and compassion - that is why we've survived and even flourished as a species. When the neuron pathways are blocked, when the pheromone/chemical doesn't connect with neurons, if mirror neurons don't form, then we are broken human beings. We don't know yet why this chemical is blocked or not released by the brain and we may never know, because we're a sum of all our experiences - it isn't nature or nurture, it's nature and nurture and the two can't be separated.
As we mature we go through stages of empathy and compassion development. we learn that others may have different responses, thoughts and feelings about similar situations. We learn that those thoughts etc., are as valid as our own even if they are different from ours. No matter how wrong we believe that other person's thoughts and responses are we still understand that the other person is experiencing those thoughts and responses. As babies we begin by imitating those responses and by the time we are adults we have formed a theory of mind - we can not only imitate others' emotions, we can understand, feel empathy and compassion and recognize those emotions in others without the belief of the superiority of our own emotions or that our emotions supercede the need of others.
How this development breaks down in some human beings is unknown fully at this point in time. We do know that humans are reactive and adaptive, that hardwiring in the brain develops quickly in some humans, slowly in others and not at all for some or develops contrarily in a few. We know that for those who are chronically depressed that neurons may not function as those who are not depressed or that neuronal pathways are blocked for some reason. Why some people exhibit extreme behavioral abnormalities which are described as sociopathy or personality disorders is still unknown. Behavior is mostly learned but it is experienced in the brain as a chemical reaction - human beings are basically big bags of chemicals - so more and more scientists are coming to the understanding that we are a sum of all our parts, nature, nurture and environment.
That you feel compassion and empathy and pity for this woman and her family isn't weird, it's normal human behavior. Feeling compassion and sorrow for Casey and Caylee aren't mutually exclusive, they are mutually inclusive - it is a recognition on your part that these are real human beings who are a part of ourselves as a species and society and any destruction of the potential of the human spirit is diminishing to our humanity.
Now we have this young woman who has left a swath of destruction that can never be repaired; Caylee has had her life snuffed out, her parents are emtionally devastated and guilt ridden which will never leave them, her brother has been the victim of the most cruel and vicious rumours and for what? So that she can experience a moment or two in life that is so fleeting, so meaningless, so unredemptive that most people don't even remember it as they grow older. For Casey, a party, a boyfriend, a nightclub, fashionable clothes were so important to her that she was willing to kill for them, destroy friendships and cause unimaginable grief to her family - and aren't those the saddest, most inconsequential reasons of all? Why shouldn't she be pitied for that? How much more broken can a human being be? She's as sick as someone who has cancer and what's worse is that she can never be cured - there's no treatment that's going to fix this or make it better, it's already killed her as sure as it's killed Caylee and those who loved them. We should pity them all.
