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In Jungian terms, unexpressed thoughts and emotions form our shadow-self, the disowned part of self we project onto others who become the enemy--our spouse, or the country with which we are at war.
There is a heavy price to be paid when feelings are denied or repressed. Lethargy, boredom, and a sense of deadness toward life may be the sorry consequences - bigger and stronger forms of stimulation are required to feel happy and alive. Some people drink, others drive recklesslyï - some get seriously ill as a way to get the attention and still feel alive.
—John W. Travis, MD, and Regina Sara Ryan
that really makes this sort of philosophizing look.....gratuitous, unnecessary....something a person with a lot of education and literary talent engages in to help make sense of the world to himself.
It's not that feelings are meaningless, for that would imply some of your body is, but it is that your stories are. They literally mean nothing and are about nothing.
I'm not as verbose as you are, but I will try to keep up here.
I expressed my skepticism and he made an excellent point in response: is it not better to err on the side of caution and avoid unnecessary cruelty?
Please demonstrate both the fallacy in my post and my attempt to deceive, as per the definition of sophistry. I see neither and intended neither. Surely you can point it out.
I find it scary to think anyone would consider erring on the side of caution to avoid unnecessary cruelty to be "fallacious and deceptive". How do you find basis for compassion, kindness, random acts of charity? The stuff we pride ourselves in, seeing a need and responding to it not out of duty or obligation but because we know how it feels.
...Oh, right. You dislike all things human. Hence the username. It all makes sense now. I'm sorry for your suffering, spending so much time as the thing you disdain. Although you might find that flexibility grants you some much needed breathing room in your philosophies.
Where once humanity derived its morality from outside sources—perhaps a philosophy, a book or a pulpit—it now derives from the pleasantries and sufferings of our own insides. It is good because it makes us happy; it is bad because it makes us suffer. Isn’t this so? However, how we feel about something is not indicative of that something, but is wholly indicative of he whom experiences it. Nothing besides.
originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: TzarChasm
You seem pretty good at humoring and satisfying yourself. Maybe it's best we keep it that way.
Feelings can lead to action, action can lead to change. That's a fact. If the feelings/actions/changes are good or bad can be debated. But considering this fact I would have to give give the OP a false