05.04.04 The 2nd Driver of Negative Gossip

2. Insensitivity and Lack of Empathy

Insensitivity pertains to having no sympathy for another person’s feelings or even being unaware of, disinterested in or untouched by how others feel. Related to that is a ‘lack of empathy’ which pertains to one’s inability to identify, appreciate or even experience the thoughts, feelings or emotions of other people.

Insensitivity coupled with a lack of empathy can propel a person to negatively gossip against victims, since the monger is unbothered about how the victims will feel should they discover that the gossiper was discussing them (victims). In other words, gossipers commonly fail to put themselves in the shoes of the victim, caring less about how their rumours will impact the individual, his or her family, work, image and so forth. The bottom line is, many gossipers hardly care about the pain that their rumours generate.

In the case of Nehemiah, the scripture is full of manifestations of how Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem were so mercilessly insensitive and unempathetic that they deployed negative rumours threatening to kill the builders of the wall.

Looking at JuaLink, Lulu was extremely insensitive and unempathetic. As you may remember, she was unmoved by Faraja’s tears the day the publicity manager confronted the officer about the alleged ‘abortions’. Did you notice that Lulu just excused herself rather than asking for an apology? She was so unempathetic that she shared pictures of her twins on JuaLink’s WhatsApp group even when every employee knew how she had been parading Faraja’s barrenness in the Agency’s corridors. As if that was not enough, the plaque that Lulu shared on her facebook page depicted how exceedingly unkind the publicity officer was