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Hochschild defines an empathy wall as “an obstacle to the deep understanding of another person, one that can make us feel indifferent or even hostile to those who hold different beliefs or whose childhood is rooted in different circumstances.” Her research methodology is carefully oriented toward overcoming the empathy walls that she believes segregate American communities into echo chambers—people lose the ability to empathize with people outside their own political community and polarization accelerates. Hochschild’s goal is to understand the Americans whose political beliefs are most radically different from her own, and accordingly her hard-won friendships with the Louisianans she encounters demonstrate the dangers and rewards of building “empathy bridges” to climb empathy walls.
Empathy Wall Quotes in Strangers in Their Own Land
The Strangers in Their Own Land quotes below are all either spoken by Empathy Wall or refer to Empathy Wall. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Preface Quotes
We, on both sides, wrongly imagine that empathy with the “other” side brings an end to clearheaded analysis when, in truth, it’s on the other side of the bridge that the most important analysis can begin.
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At the end of the preface, Hochschild elaborates her motivations for reconsidering empathy’s role in politics and preempts her readers’ possible concern that using empathy to research politics would mean setting aside rational policy analysis, refusing a dialogue about ideas by giving full credence to people’s irrational emotions. Instead, Hochschild suggests that understanding others’ deep story can lead her to see how their political beliefs, which may seem puzzling at first, are actually perfectly “clearheaded” given their own experience and worldview. In other words, Hochschild does not study emotion to study irrationality, but rather because she has faith that people Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas
Chapter 1 Quotes
Looking out the window of the truck, it’s clear that Mike and I see different things. Mike sees a busy, beloved, bygone world. I see a field of green.
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As Mike Schaff drives Hochschild to the old Armelise Plantation, where he grew up in the former slave quarters, he shows her where his relatives and old friends used to live and work. He knew everyone in the tight-knit community and longs to rediscover another place like it. He blames “big government” for getting in the way and indirectly destroying the sort of close bonds that Armelise Plantation used to foster. Mike’s nostalgia for his “busy, beloved, bygone world” reflects Southern whites’ distress at their declining socioeconomic status and cultural position in an increasingly globalized American society. His nostalgia also Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusanti
But first, the people.
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Hochschild cuts off her musings about the role conservative feeling rules and deep stories play in the Great Paradox by returning to “the people.” This reflects her sustained focus on Louisianans’ personal experiences and narratives, above and beyond their political beliefs. Although Hochschild always keeps the broader political problem of the Great Paradox in the back of her mind, her primary focus is getting to know Louisianans “up close” through empathetic listening. She believes that “the people” underlie the politics, and she worries that liberal scholars often forget people’s complexity by reducing them to their political beliefs or treating them Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut i
Chapter 10 Quotes
“I don't mind somebody being gay if they want to be gay. Just be a regular person, go to work, mow the lawn, fish. You don't have to be shouting it from the mountaintops. Don't make me change and don't call me a bigot if I don't.”
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Janice Areno explains her feeling that the line cutters are not merely finding a place in American society but rather actively forcing hardworking conservatives to change their own values in order to accommodate diversity and lashing out at them if they refuse to change. However, Janice’s concept of a “regular person”—as one who works, takes care of their property, and perhaps goes fishing for fun—also reflects her specific Southern conservative concept of honor. Whereas LGBT Americans like Chaz Bono (to whom Janice is specifically referring here) probably see themselves as asking for acceptance, Janice sees them as “shouting it from Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam
Chapter 13 Quotes
Without a national vision based on the common good, none of us could leave a natural heritage to our children, or, as the General said, be “free.” A free market didn't make us a free people, I thought. But I had slipped way over to my side of the empathy wall again.
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In this passage, Hochschild “slips” by revealing her own perspective on the relationship between regulations and freedom: without prioritizing the common good, one person’s (or chemical company’s) freedom will inevitably get in the way of other people’s freedom. Because the free market operates on self-interest, economic actors need not consider the negative consequences of their actions so long as they are not impacted themselves. For Hochschild, this is where the government should step in, but many Louisianans seem to think it has no place even when such conflicts of interest arise. While she recognizes that she is regressing “over to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque er
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Empathy Wall Term Timeline in Strangers in Their Own Land
The timeline below shows where the term Empathy Wall appears in Strangers in Their Own Land. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1 – Traveling to the Heart
Hochschild suggests that her confusion might stem from an “ empathy wall ” between her and Mike. (An empathy wall is “an obstacle to deep understanding of...
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Chapter 4 – The Candidates
...deep story” by noticing what that story excludes. She is clearly not yet “over the empathy wall ,” even though the Tea Party members she met surprised her with their warmth and...
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...Honoré (who is black Creole but popularly known as the “Ragin’ Cajun”) as an “ empathy wall leaper.” When Hochschild asks him why Louisianans do not “ask politicians to clean up their...
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Chapter 5 – The “Least Resistant Personality”
...does not give Louisianans enough credit for what they do believe. Hochschild suggests that “the empathy wall was higher than I’d imagined” and resolves to explore the cultural institutions that her subjects...
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Chapter 16 – “They Say There Are Beautiful Trees”
...this interdependence, Hochschild remarks that she “was humbled by the complexity and height of the empathy wall ” throughout her research. However, she notes that Louisianans’ “teasing, good-hearted acceptance of a stranger...
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