ABSTRACT
In a pre-modern and place-bound society, a person’s empathic circle contained only their primary community as this was their necessity for life. This chapter demonstrates that in a time of de-growth and perceived scarcity, there could potentially breakdown process of extended empathy as individuals would turn inward, protecting their family and immediate community, which could lead to significant civil unrest. Rifkin rejects this to some degree, arguing that as ‘homo empathicus’ humanity has a tendency towards conviviality and collective nature. On the exact opposite side of that argument, Elias’s thesis suggests that any loss of complexity and sustained reduction in interdependency would lead to loosening of internalized controls – violence.
