In separateness lies the world’s great misery, in compassion lies the world’s true strength.

Most cruelty depends on a boundary, the sense that certain people are a different kind of thing whose suffering runs on a separate account from yours. Compassion works by dissolving that line rather than by generating extra virtue, which is why it feels less like effort and more like accurate perception. Strength is the right word for it, because a group that can keep that line down is far harder to break than one that cannot.

Pick a person or a category you have quietly filed as other. Spend a moment imagining their week in specifics, which is where the filing usually falls apart.