Empathy
I know many that consider empathy a universal good. That is, the ability to empathize with another being's suffering, joy, shame or anger is something that unequivocally enriches a person's life. This is particularly true among the chronic emotional reasoners who rely on their ability to empathize as one of the most important pieces in their philosophical universe. I disagree.
I think the ability to empathize is important to understand people and their situations, but it comes at a heavy price. Empathy is one of the most important factors in enforcing individuals to conform and become complacent. Empathy is what leads many people to develop an irrational moral philosophy which leads them to commit immoral acts when the nonsense catches up with them. Empathy is a gate in which ignorance can sneak into the mind.
With empathy, that which brings joy to others brings joy to us. That which brings embarrassment to others, brings it to us. The psychological phenomenon of witnessing it versus experiencing it is off near indistinguishable in the human brain. Their experience becomes our experience. Their reactions and anticipations become ours. It's what makes standards and mores contagious. It spreads human beliefs, thoughts, ticks, tastes, codes, and the like to all who come in contact with it.
Our brains are hard-wired to receive it. Through empathy, we learn the fabric of what becomes human thought. As we become older, the collective experience grinds down the human experience. As our teenage brains that struggle with empathy become young adults with a clear sense of it, our individuality gets ground down. A defiant teen becomes a complacent, conservative middle-aged cog. Empathy is the radio wire...once it's tuned in, it's a millstone on your brain.
I believe that's why so many great thinkers are assholes, socially ignorant and freaks. Their empathy is all out of tune so they can't learn the expectations, values, practices, common thinking. They never end up receiving the conditioning, which leaves them free to be individuals and have creative minds.
Many may find this incredibly insulting, but I believe that's the primary reason (besides patriarchy) that women have yet to catch up with men in many fields that require divergent thinking. That is to say, they are intrinsically as creative, intelligent, and talented as men, but men have less empathy. Men are more socially retarded and, therefore, more able to develop values and priorities that ignore other's expectations for them and break more conventions. An extremely empathetic person is paralyzed with thoughts of what others think and what others expect and what others think is good sense because they don't want to ever have to experience the emotion of other's disappointment and disdain. This is why I believe so many of the most
successful women i've met in my life have been the most socially retarded or lacking empathy.
And before I anyone wants to seriously question my feminist credentials, I'd like to say real female liberation in my mind has always revolved around this dynamic. I believe empathy and values that grow from it is what's holding women back and i'm actively working for the day no such barriers exist. Empathy is the boot on women's throats that coerces conformity through a lifetime of conditioning...expectations, mannerisms, opinions, images.
I often get heat from my stance that I don't date nice girls. I define a nice girl as one that has too much empathy and acts accordingly. Kind, thoughtful, understanding, compassionate, complacent, boring, uninspired, one-dimensional, conventional, vapid...subjugated. The social retards attract me like a magnet and I find it now coincidence they're more developed and creative individuals with opinions and observations that are sand-papered down into oblivion.
That is not to suggest at all this is a gender-specific issue. Or that people without empathy tend to be ignorant assholes or sociopathic maniacs. Empathy is healthy in controlled amounts. Otherwise, it becomes biological thought control...an instinct hard-wired into your brain to get you to subjugate you will to the collective. Which works pretty well in a survival situation, but not well at all when we live in a society where we must develop as individuals to have meaningful lives.
I think the ability to empathize is important to understand people and their situations, but it comes at a heavy price. Empathy is one of the most important factors in enforcing individuals to conform and become complacent. Empathy is what leads many people to develop an irrational moral philosophy which leads them to commit immoral acts when the nonsense catches up with them. Empathy is a gate in which ignorance can sneak into the mind.
With empathy, that which brings joy to others brings joy to us. That which brings embarrassment to others, brings it to us. The psychological phenomenon of witnessing it versus experiencing it is off near indistinguishable in the human brain. Their experience becomes our experience. Their reactions and anticipations become ours. It's what makes standards and mores contagious. It spreads human beliefs, thoughts, ticks, tastes, codes, and the like to all who come in contact with it.
Our brains are hard-wired to receive it. Through empathy, we learn the fabric of what becomes human thought. As we become older, the collective experience grinds down the human experience. As our teenage brains that struggle with empathy become young adults with a clear sense of it, our individuality gets ground down. A defiant teen becomes a complacent, conservative middle-aged cog. Empathy is the radio wire...once it's tuned in, it's a millstone on your brain.
I believe that's why so many great thinkers are assholes, socially ignorant and freaks. Their empathy is all out of tune so they can't learn the expectations, values, practices, common thinking. They never end up receiving the conditioning, which leaves them free to be individuals and have creative minds.
Many may find this incredibly insulting, but I believe that's the primary reason (besides patriarchy) that women have yet to catch up with men in many fields that require divergent thinking. That is to say, they are intrinsically as creative, intelligent, and talented as men, but men have less empathy. Men are more socially retarded and, therefore, more able to develop values and priorities that ignore other's expectations for them and break more conventions. An extremely empathetic person is paralyzed with thoughts of what others think and what others expect and what others think is good sense because they don't want to ever have to experience the emotion of other's disappointment and disdain. This is why I believe so many of the most
successful women i've met in my life have been the most socially retarded or lacking empathy.
And before I anyone wants to seriously question my feminist credentials, I'd like to say real female liberation in my mind has always revolved around this dynamic. I believe empathy and values that grow from it is what's holding women back and i'm actively working for the day no such barriers exist. Empathy is the boot on women's throats that coerces conformity through a lifetime of conditioning...expectations, mannerisms, opinions, images.
I often get heat from my stance that I don't date nice girls. I define a nice girl as one that has too much empathy and acts accordingly. Kind, thoughtful, understanding, compassionate, complacent, boring, uninspired, one-dimensional, conventional, vapid...subjugated. The social retards attract me like a magnet and I find it now coincidence they're more developed and creative individuals with opinions and observations that are sand-papered down into oblivion.
That is not to suggest at all this is a gender-specific issue. Or that people without empathy tend to be ignorant assholes or sociopathic maniacs. Empathy is healthy in controlled amounts. Otherwise, it becomes biological thought control...an instinct hard-wired into your brain to get you to subjugate you will to the collective. Which works pretty well in a survival situation, but not well at all when we live in a society where we must develop as individuals to have meaningful lives.