Question I am an extremely lonely and isolated person due to a developmental disability. Nobody (absolutely nobody) has ever expressed compassion toward me with regard to my isolation despite the fact that people in our modern society are educated enough to know how traumatic and damaging isolation can be. Why is indifference toward people who are socially isolated a near universal social norm in modern western society (at least in America) Does this norm have any ethical underpinning? How could it possibly have an ethical underpinning when you consider that in general we believe that a person who undergoes distress warrants our compassion?

Accepted:

September 1, 2011