This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

Around the world, parents, schools and religious leaders talk about the importance of empathy.

We tell our children that seeing things from another child's point of view is a sign of wisdom.

Today we bring you two stories of empathy.

What makes these stories unusual is that this is not the ordinary kind of empathy we display

toward friends.

This empathy is much harder.

It's about putting yourself in the shoes of your enemies.

I think that the two big elements that are lacking from the discourse on both sides is one

a massive lack of hope and two this unbelievable lack of empathy.

There's a reason we don't see a lot of this kind of empathy in the world.

It's hard, sure.

But also, one of the most enduring psychological drives in human nature is to be part of a tribe.

When someone in our tribe starts seeing things from the point of view of another tribe,

we have a name for people like that, traders.

What was most hurtful for me, most painful, was nobody stood by me.

Hard though it is, this kind of empathy accomplishes remarkable things.

For one thing, when an enemy sees things from your point of view, she stops being your

enemy.

This kind of empathy can melt hearts, bring down walls.

And that's what makes it dangerous.

And I'm staring at this wall of the window of the bus at the Kalamdiya checkpoint.

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