Muhammet BAKIR / Merhamet Yumruğu 2025

One of the fundamental issues that Susan Sontag addresses in “Regarding the Pain of Others” concerns “compassion” as an action-oriented force. But the concept seems to have lost its essence and been devoid of such meaning during the recent years. And yet, here are two simple but vital facts: ⁠The world population will exceed 9 billion by 2037. Human needs are limitless, but natural resources are not.

This imbalance has pushed us to the brink of an unprecedented crisis, causing immense suffering where effective and lasting solutions remain elusive. At this point, it is important to ask: what has happened to the compassion and hence empathy that are the foundation of human culture and all living beings? Because it seems we need such action-oriented compassion as underlined by Sontag more than ever!

We attempt to encourage ourselves to question and reflect on its role in both our emotional and conceptual worlds.