I love why questions! I love what if questions. Reincarnation isn't necessary for compassion to exist. Why isn't being human sufficient for more compassion to exist? Every culture has a systematic paradigm for cultivating kindly civil discourse. Even in a world of increasing secular domain, the primary artifact of Western Law is predicated on a Judeo/Christian belief structure. We can have secular paradigms that encourages ethical behavior. The only one I can think of stems from my favorite fiction, Star Trek. It's called the Prime Directive. I am a super fan of Rodenberry, who openly stated he thought modern religion and politics were delaying human progress. I happen to agree with his sentiments, and my preference would be having a secular society that is built around a kind of Utopian philosophy found in Trek.

Discussing reincarnation as a potential pathway for discussing, and or encouraging greater acts of kindness, or compassion, can be literal, and follows the thought process in the essay, or it could be simply metaphorical. It's just a philosophical point that might cause someone who hadn't considered compassion to someone who differed a way of contemplating wearing someone else's shoes.

I am so open to other ideas for increasing compassion. If you have some ideas, maybe we can discuss them and I can write about them. The major five religions, they discuss compassion. Again, I favor Buddhism in this regards. I would argue economic systems, all of the ones we presently use, aren't high in compassion. The invisible hand of the market is truly indifferent to supply and demand. With out overlays from other paradigms, humans have a tendency to be rather brutal.

So, good point- we probably need lots of ways of helping people appreciate differences.