Are you overly-sensitive to images of cruelty?

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I probably come across as that way because i have no emotions to speak of for myself. Wether they are completely missing or i am alexithymic i do not know. I do actually understand that emotions are involuntary, but people can learn to suppress them. Merely having an emotion doesn't make the emotion have meaning however, even if you can't ignore it. That's what i was getting at.


Revulsion would serve a purpose if it prevents you from doing said action in the future.


I disagree, their involuntary nature does not automatically equate them to being useful. There are useful emotional responses and un-useful ones, just as there are useful and un-useful thoughts.

I'm overly sensative to violence and behavior I cannot comprehend. The obsessive annalysing, scenario playouts begin in an attempt to make sense of what I've seen and heard. It is my nature, although I understand the behaviour is negative and resolves nothing.

However, when I watch the news and the story is about some 'Boat people', refugees loosing their lives attempting to make it to Australian shores it has no impact. My wife has been shocked when I say, " They should not try to illegally gain entry, their fault". It can take upto a week or so before I realise how inappropriate my comments were.

Exactly...it's not sadness per se that I feel. Humans aren't motivated to do much of anything unless there's some fundamental self-interest at work. What compels people to do "good deeds" for others in the first place? Is it because they're so selfless? Not at all IMO. People who do good deeds are either gaining something pleasant from them or avoiding something unpleasant. Religious altruists might think they're winning brownie points with god or avoiding damnation via "good works". There is nothing selfless about either one of those motivations. Others might just enjoy the warm and fuzzy feelings altruism brings. Or they wish to avoid the negative feelings they might have over failing to perform "good works". None of this seems the least bit selfless to me either. There's always a "what's in it for me?" factor.

I do many things that aren't in my self-interest and in my situations there is no-feel good factor or any avoiding of unpleasantness. I think you place too much importance on emotions in this regard.

I turn off the TV when the commercials for the SPCA (featuring Sarah McLachlan) come on that show the animals that are suffering.

[quote="Chronozon"]

That's your answer?[/quote

Yup. You don't know how it was back then. The War Cry was "Remember Pearl Harbor". There was a blood hatred of the Japanese back then. You have no idea how it was, so do not say anything. If we had ten nukes we would have dropped them all on Japan. The hatred was so deep that most Americans did not consider the Japanese to be human beings. We thought of them as vermin to be eliminated.

ruveyn

Mind giving me a few examples?

If you do...i'm betting I can root out some critical self-interest motivation/s. If not....then I stand corrected....it wouldn't be the first time.


The "what's in for me"? factor need not always involve emotions ofcourse.

You are right. I think that unfortunately cruelty can result when a species which has predator instincts also develops high intelligence. So in essence what you are saying is true, it is nature that can make humans cruel.

I offered to give my brother my ps3 for free, he didn't want it so i sold it.

I gave my brother's ex-girlfriend my tv, that i could have sold for monies (probably about £100), even though i knew i'd never see her again (not that i'd want to see her again either).

I usually give bigger tips than are expected when i go out to eat, even if i am eating on my own.

I feel both. Plus extreme anger.

.....

Last edited by zen_mistress on 01 Aug 2009, 7:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"do not say anything"

Huh?

I'm afraid i'll say anything I darn well please ruveyn

Yeah....I know. Since I wasn't alive at the time, I can't possibly know how it was Was there something rational about that blood hatred of the Japanese? I'm not denying it existed...i'm asking if there was really anything rational about it. I've got news for you ruveyn, most people may not be saints, but few are bloodthirsty ghouls either. Most people in this world just want to live and let live. They want to earn a living, raise their families and try to get some enjoyment out of life. By and large, it's those in power who create all the problems. I'm sorry if you can't see the difference (or couldn't then at least) between the Japanese people and those who held the power in Japan. Sure alot of the people supported the government. Haven't alot of Americans done the same when our government was involved in some injustified conflict like Vietnam? I am sure many of the Japanese, even ones who didn't believe in the war or support their government, would've fought to defend their homeland anyway. Put yourself in their shoes and then tell me if you would've acted differently. Would you risk being ostracized by your community, friends and family for refusing to fight? Would you be willing to face the risk of imprisonment, torture or death for refusing to do your "patriotic duty"? I think not.

I don't particularily care what most Americans thought of the Japanese at the time. Or what most of the Japanese thought of us for that matter. The masses are often wrong about alot of things. Again, I would say it was largely the propaganda of the respective governments that engendered that mutual hatred.

You will naturally deny this, maybe even to yourself, but i'm betting you got SOMETHING out of these acts.

Since i'm not a mind-reader, I won't pretend to know what it was. Sure I can speculate in terms of general human motivations for things like this, but that would be rather pointless.

To be fair though....i'll give you the benefit of the doubt here. That said, then why don't you tell what exactly motivated you to do these things if there was absolutely nothing in it for you whatsoever.

Futhermore Michjo.....you might wish to acknowledge the existence of subconscious motivations in human behavior. Maybe you don't consciously apprehend any self-interest motivations for doing these things, that doesn't necessarily mean there weren't any. We are not always consciously aware of the motivations for every single thing we do.

One doesn't. One cannot put in what God left out. We cannot feel the suffering of our victims as vividly as the victims. The feedback loop is broken.

ruveyn

I don't really understand the word motivation.


Why not?


She needed a tv? If anything i've ended up down on two fronts. I've just lost £100 and god forbid, she might speak to me if she see's me about


Why not?