The opposite of compassion

Someone asked me, "What do you think the opposite of compassion is?" I nervously replied, "coldness".

He then went on. "Most people think that the opposite of compassion is apathy, callousness, coldness. But I think it's competitiveness."

Whoa, this is a different way of looking at it. In modern American culture, competitiveness is held to be a virtue. We like to think of ourselves as compassionate (read: good), but is our core competitiveness a stumbling block to compassion that thinks not of oneself?

He recommended that I read a book by Henry Nouwen entitled "Compassion".