RE: Emotional expression and the violence inherent in the system
I like to play devil's advocate for the sake of a real conversation, as opposed to an echo chamber, so here are a couple minor points of contention that I take with your statement.
Firstly, you start by arguing that society ought to be more receptive to individual feelings, and for the "cool, logical ideal" to be thrown out, but then a little later, you assert that president Trump was elected based on an emotional response made by voters. Now, assuming that Trump being POTUS is a negative in your mind (I know it is in mine), then didn't you just argue against your whole point? Wouldn't a more levelheaded, rational, thinking population have been able to avoid such a negative outcome? Food for thought.
Also, where does this "violence" come in? I detest the twisting of words to fit an agenda. It's not violence, it's a lack of acceptance. Big difference, that sounds less sexy and will sell fewer papers, but will sound much more accurate and honest.
Good read!
thanks for playing devil, i value the chance to clarify. I have nothing against logic, in fact i'm a big supporter of it. I just disagree that emotions should be repressed and ignored. The more we repress them, the harder they are to talk about calmly and rationally. Room should be made to talk about conflicts in the workplace and in society, yet that rarely occurs because we are taught to avoid dealing with emotions. They are suppressed in almost every facet of life, yet in politics, where we most need logic and rationality, emotional response is encouraged. To me this is ass backwards. Politics effect everyone. We cannot afford emotional bias when dealing with such a large spectrum, and political decisions are not an every day affair dealing in changing social interactions like work and social life. I believe we agree on the point, I apologize if it was unclear.
I am defining "violence" here as actions/inactions or a mindset that hurts others. In my humble opinion, suppressing emotions, ignoring painful social issues or allowing abuse that leads to crime, mental illness, emotional illnesses such as anxiety and depression is a form of violence that society visits upon itself. The mindset that emotions need to be repressed at work exists because it takes away from businesses need to have workers follow a structured eight hour day. We have learned to suppress our emotions and issues at so many levels that it becomes a form of self abuse which is unhealthy. The daily business of living does not allow us time to process the overload of emotions, nor are we taught to make time to deal with them unless we have particularly mature parents.
We grow up learning to deny basic instincts and needs like eating when we are hungry, crying when we are sad, giving ourselves time to grieve, and social organizations enforce this behavior with rules about what is appropriate. The violence often isnt physical as much as mental and emotional, but its pervasive and harmful none the less. In my opinion the issue isnt lack of acceptance, it's too much acceptance of the rules society opposes on us at an early age, before we are old enough to reason. We arent encouraged to think about this or act upon it. We are bullied into conformity and acceptance, and it needs to stop.
Yes the emotions/mind set of the nation are so easily bullied manipulated, mostly by fear tactics, hence the crazyness of emotional response to that absolute f*ckwit Trump.
what bothers me is that people are either oblivious to it, ok with it (inner denial because if they admitted they were manipulated then they would need to live with the fear and outrage), or aware with it but apathetic (what can i do/that's just the way it is). we as a nation are so inured to ethics and believing we have the power to effect any change that we give up rather than fight, and each time we give up it is a soul wound, a belittling of the spirit because we are taught by society and others that we do not matter. the only way we can matter is to become the voice of thousands, or deny that anything has power over us. it is a lesson we pick up then emulate in our dealing with others -copying the same patterns that others used to invalidate us.
Ah yes, the willfully ignorant. The media creates that too really, a little like herding sheep if looked at objectively, dogs snapping at their backlegs, the equivalent of the threat of losing your job or that terrorists are on every street, but fookin' hell Trump still takes a lot of getting your head around. ;)
just the fact that he wants to arm teachers with guns appalls me. why do we need to? why cant kids live without fear? why do parents need to be so busy trying to make end meet that they dont even have the money to help their children who are clinically depressed? people are constantly telling me I expect too much from myself, yet isn't that just the lesson society teaches us on a daily basis?
Basically, he is one very sick human being, in a very sick world.
We're programmed to struggle for the elite, and they're programmed to make us struggle. Sick world....... :(