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>What poetics tallies with a politics of toleration, democracy, intelligence, >empathy? Though these ideals bring tears to my eyes, the problem with applying ‘tide’ to cure the world and its poetry for a better place everywhere is that is doesn’t recognize that humanism doesn’t necessarily ring true everywhere, or at least ring in the same way. Countries with Confucian histories (not Greco-Judeo-Christian or Islamic) will have access to different models of social ideals that might caste those same words (tide) into a different frame of reference. For instance, “empathy” might mean not the capacity of an individual to stand in the shoes of someone (suffering), but living up to one’s obligations in such a way that reflects a (hierarchical) reciprocity of benevolent patriarch and trusting underling. There is a shift in this hypothetical scenario from empathy as mental action to empathy as active sign of mental state. And “democracy,” with its emphasis on the individual subject, can be seen as cultivating selfishness in such places. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%