Compassion=Context

Compassion—being defined as the ability, to not only understand another person's predicament, but to empathize with it—is dependent on the level of detail and surrounding context that is available. So lack of compassion results from a limited perspective and contextual understanding—or, put another way, not enough detail and a insufficient contextual gasp of a given situation. Gaining context and a wider perspective then will always result in increased compassion as long as the level of detail is not lost. If the level of detail is lost as you move to a broader and more inclusive perspective on a given situation, then you will only be substituting one scale for another scale. What this means is that cruelty is the result of not seeing broadly and clearly enough. There is no nasty or negative attitude that can hold in the face of more context, greater detail, deeper understanding.