Haggis_McMutton wrote:PLAYER57832 wrote:Haggis_McMutton wrote:I mean sure, I want there to be minimal victims and I'm hoping they'll recuperate from this disaster well. But I don't feel any actual sympathy for them, they're pretty much a statistic to me.
This is scary
Allright. Do you also personally care about the people who died in the mongol invasion of China?
how far back does your empathy extend? Do you have unlimited capability for compassion? At some point it becomes only a statistic.
OK, sort of semantics more than anything else.
PLAYER57832 wrote:Haggis_McMutton wrote:That's just it. I think this may just be a cultural thing. We paint it as "normal" to care about those people on a personal level, and therefore due to peer pressure and such we try to convince ourselves that we care, that we aren't "monsters".
Caring for others is one of the traits in evolution that has ensured human survival, that distinguishes us from animals. (some animals absolutely do show compassion, but not to the extent we do)
Labeling others as "not worthy", in contrast, is the kind of thinking that allows/causes wars and such ulimately heneous acts as the holocaust, pol pot, apartheid, etc.
Now, of course I know you said you do care, just not as much. However, this capacity to care is a far from just a "social more".
Yes, we've evolved to care about our family, we've evolved to care about our tribe, we haven't evolved to care about the tribe 1000 miles away.[/quote] Not true, now. Perhaps it was once, but the fact is that now many of us are even more "connected" to people far away than here. Also, because we know more people more readily, our capacity to care has shifted some.
Ironically, some people may actually care more about those 1000 people far away than those nearby. I talk about the local fire below. The home was a HUD home. Instantly, many people assumed it was a drug house and essentially withheld help from several families for that reason.
Haggis_McMutton wrote:I never said anything about being "not worthy", I just don't think it is actually possible to care about everyone in a significant way. I think we try to believe it is possible cause it makes us feel better.
Like I said, a lot of these acts are obviously horrible from a rational standpoint, you don't need feelings to believe they are horrible.
Except, that is the thing. Of COURSE, I know you understand those are people and I am not suggesting you are in any way about to paint a swastika on your shoulder, but it is a continuum. Saying you care less about people 1000 miles away or who we don't know is one thing. Saying they are "just statistics" is something else. It IS how we wind up being able to justify what wind up being horrific acts.
Today, more than ever our daily actions DO actually impact people all across the world, that is why it is more important now, than ever to actually care about, pay attention to and understand other people. It may be somewhat natural to care less about the Chinese "masses", but unless we do.. we are ALL "doomed", in a sense.
PLAYER57832 wrote:Haggis_McMutton wrote:Have you really managed to fit all of the japanese victims into your
monkey sphere ?
While the basic point is valid -- we care more about individuals than huge masses of people, they fail to fully illustrate some important differences between humans and monkeys. Its not just that our brains are larger, the way we process information is different from monkeys. That is why we can speak, not just one, but multiple languages, but monkeys can only use a few signs/sounds.
Sure, there are differences, but I think the basic point remains. Do you always consider how your actions might affect the garbage man? or the cleaning lady or so on?
The example about traffic was pretty good as well, why don't people act like that in smaller groups?
tokerForElf wrote:As far as the Japanese go, I mean, I feel bad for them, that's gotta suck. But no, it's not the same as if it happened to someone I knew. Before, I would hear about people being raped and murdered, and it was like, "oh well, shit happens all the time." Then it happened to someone I know. I reacted quite a bit different. Now I'm a bit more sensitive to that kind of thing just because of the familiarity. I suspect anyone who has lost loved ones to or lived through an earthquake would have more sympathy for the Japanese than those who haven't.
This is a good point, and one of the "tricks" i think we may use to make ourselves care. Identify huge masses of people with a single person whom we actually know and who has suffered from the same plight, that way some of the sympathy may rub off
Also, on a tangent, I just finished reading the last strip of
oots, and noticed something related to this in both my and the general forum's reaction.
There's this smart charismatic completely selfish dictator, who as it often happens, despite being completely evil is liked by a lot of people(me included). He's done all sorts of terrible things, like burning dozens of slave alive for trying to escape, but that didn't seem to affect too many people's views about him, we didn't know who the slaves are.
Now, he's just cold-bloodily ordered the death of two prisoners who are sort of episodic characters and good friends and whom we somewhat know and care about(even though they too aren't exactly good people). As soon as this happened I couldn't help but feel that I like the dictator slightly less, a feeling that was echoed in the forums.
It's because we actually know something about these guys, we actually care somewhat about them.
I know it's just a comic, but I think this happens to varying degrees in RL as well.[/quote]
Yes, and you hit upon why so many despotic leaders wind up persisting.
This is precisely the kind of "logic" the US has used in the past, still seems to employ. I mean, you always hear that we need to overthrow x regime because they are doing horrible things to their people, but there is a "strange cooincidental connection" between our ability to see "terrible acts" and the importance that country has to our economic interests.