Compassion is an endearing human trait, but as with everything else, it can be too much of a good thing when carried to excess. 

Take the case of Donald Trump's call to temporary ban muslim immigrants from countries with high radical islamic activity until we can, as he puts it, "figure out what's going on."

Trump's proposal, which has been consistently supported by a majority of the American public, is met with a storm of criticism from the mainstream media and the political establishment. For making it, Trump is called a racist and every other pejorative in the book. The pathetic Paul Ryan, the Republican Speaker of the House, has even said he would sue if Trump tried to enact such a ban.  

The essential underlying argument against Trump's proposal -- at least the argument that is made for public consumption -- is compassion. This has touched the nerve of many good-hearted people and has gotten them to fall in line with the call for near unrestricted immigration into the U.S. 

But is this the proper response?

In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang describes how opposites or seemingly contrary forces are actually complementary, interdependent, and interconnected in the natural world. Light is balanced with darkness, male with female, fire with water, etc. The contrary forces cannot be separated. This is the way the world works.

Accordingly, to comport policy with the natural world --- and with reality --- compassion must be balanced by level headed logic and reasoning. The initial feel-good emotional release of compassion cannot be allowed to run hog wild and trample rational arguments.  

Upon an objective examination, Trump's proposal can be seen as nothing but mere common sense. But as I have personally found out, it is hard to convince those who are emotional blinded by their embrace of 200-proof compassion on this issue. They seem immune to fact, logic, and reasoning so perhaps the way to penetrate their blindness through the imagery of song.

The song that sums up the situation best comes from 1960. It is Al Wilson's The Snake.  Take a listen. Sing it to your bleeding heart friends. See if they get it.