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My experience: the people who have had the most poo poo happen to them in their lives and have had to experience the most pain, are also the most empathetic. If you have been extremely low, and you know someone who is in a bad place, your experiences can help you to understand them, comfort them and to walk them back. I would never call that ability useless. The new Pixar film Inside Out comes to mind actually (it's awesome go see it): joy makes us love life, fear keeps us safe, disgust makes sure we fit in socially, anger keeps things fair, and sadness lets other people know that we need help from others. 'Emotions are useless' is a terrible statement, and one that I believe contributes to a drab and repressive social environment.
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Jul 20, 2015 14:33
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OwlFancier posted:I mean I don't reckon everyone should have a super lovely life so they can be empathetic because that wasn't pleasant, but to at least have a concept of suffering is pretty important for proper social awareness and interaction. No of course not it just gets me a bit irksome when people dismiss emotions and emotional intelligence as largely 'useless'. It's something which most women incidentally, either through inherent biology, socialisation or likely a mixture of both, are better at than most men. E: and I firmly believe that this association of emotion with 'uselessness' is why we have pricks advocating 'gently caress the poor' policies because they see compassion as something feminine and not worth it. I believe it's why society is more materialistic than it ought to be, and I believe that it is genuinely holding us back. a neurotic ai fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Jul 20, 2015 |
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Jul 20, 2015 14:47
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I am in a fortunate enough position where I have never needed to worry about getting food on the table. I am a relatively 'rich gently caress' but I would see a new system implemented tomorrow or a spate of tax increases if it meant a healthier, more equal society. You're right in that compassion for those less well off is harder to find as you go up the chain, but it's not always the case that it is absent. If more rich fucks had a bit more empathy for others much less well off than them, I think society would be a much better position. E: so basically what I am saying is that the 'visual essay' (lol) is a rather transparent attempt to paint men specifically as the victims of a particular set of emotional expectations. Society as a collective whole arguably suffers from this mentality far more in my book. Compassion and emotion is seen as a feminine trait, weakness, and the way to overcome this is by empowering it. a neurotic ai fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Jul 20, 2015 |
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Jul 20, 2015 15:00
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A big flaming stink posted:This is kind of the judeo-christian thing where you exalt suffering. Pain doesn't help anyone grow into a better person, it just wounds them and creates barriers to a healthy lifestyle. Suffering is way more likely to cause alienation and irrational feelings of fear or anger towards other people than compassion Perhaps you missed the reply where I said that suffering is not the end goal, empathy is? I'm only going off what I have observed here, and amongst my diverse set of friends, the people who have had to deal with these kind of problems in their own history are the first to pick up on and comfort others. Humans are social creatures, and it isn't hard to imagine that we evolved specific emotional responses to illicit reactions from our fellow tribe. It has utility.
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Jul 20, 2015 19:38
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