COMPASSION AND EMPATHY: THE ANTIDOTE TO NORMALIZED VIOLENCE

By Nankwanga Eunice Kasirye

what kind of society do we want to be-one that breeds cruelty, or one that 

nurtures peace?

Compassion and empathy are not just virtues; they are the foundation of peaceful co-existence and a humane society. When one person chooses to show compassion, it spreads, touching others, inspiring them to carry it forward, and creating a ripple effect of humanity. Sadly, the reverse is equally true: when violence is accepted, tolerated, or even celebrated, it quickly spreads until it defines an entire community.

A disturbing video circulating from Busoga, eastern Uganda, captures this dark reality. In it, a woman is seen assaulting a man with a sugarcane. Instead of intervening to stop the fight, the crowd cheers for retaliation. The man pins the woman down, strikes her with a stone on the head, and continues beating her with a stick as the crowd applauds. Even as the woman tries to escape-weak and disoriented-people, especially men, encourage the man to chase her down and even provided an extra stick. He does, catching her and beating her unconscious. From what is heard in the video, the two are parents fighting over their child.

This horrifying incident reflects a bigger problem: a society that normalizes violence. When violence becomes entertainment, when onlookers clap instead of intervene, when mothers defend sons who assault their wives, we lose our collective moral authority to call out abuse. Violence becomes culture.

We have seen this pattern repeatedly. In one recent high-profile case, a Ugandan celebrity was accused of assaulting his wife. Shockingly, his own mother publicly defended him. Only when the wife fought back-running him over with a car—did the narrative shift. These are not isolated cases; they are the fruits of a society where compassion and empathy have been eroded, replaced by a cycle of abuse passed down through generations.

If we do not break this cycle, more lives will be lost, more families destroyed, and more communities poisoned by normalized cruelty. Compassion and empathy must be restored—not as abstract ideals but as practical, lived values. Every individual has a choice: to cheer on violence or to stand for humanity.Children grow up watching such violence, absorbing it as if it were normal. But the consequences are devastating. If, in a moment of rage, the mother was to die, the same crowd that cheered the man on would quickly turn around and label him a murderer. Society would then isolate not only him but everyone connected to him. The children would lose both parents-one to death and the other to prison-eft to carry the scars of trauma for the rest of their lives. That is the true legacy of violence: broken families, wounded children, and a cycle of pain that never ends.