Politically, of course, we can all go along with the notion that it is desirable and refined to be sensitive to the feelings of others, especially when it comes to their religion or sense of identity.
I practice, though, the lines of determining what is reasonable human conduct need to be drawn somewhere else other than in terms of what infringes on people's feelings. Feelings, like landmines, can be hard to locate on first inspection. Some training and some habituation to living alongside others who do think differently from you can be of help, but it is also quite normal and relates to the human condition not to know the emotional structure of other people inside-out. It is modest and ethical not to presume to know it, furthermore.
Sensitivity training can be used as part of political faction fighting and is a subtle part of psychological warfare in many instances. If you can get someone to feel like they are walking on eggshells, they are not going to function in any effective way and will not advance their interests. I've had reality blow up in my face simply because I was so concerned about where I was walking, I couldn't think anymore.
Curiously enough, those who are practised at getting others to watch their step are the first to condemn everyone else around them for being too sensitive. They catch you in a double-bind. On one side they demand you must act with ever increasing sensitivity and on the other side if you complain about this increasingly complex and hostile state of affairs they accuse you of having had too much sensitivity.
So which one is it?
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