Wednesday, January 27, 2010

I 'hate' mankind but like all individuals...

I recognize that this is an incredible dystopia. At the same time surely I see that individuals can be awful too... But the thing is that it's a moral precept to assume good things about individuals (unless the evidence is already very good to the contrary). A huge reason this world is such a dystopia is exactly because people don't make good assumptions. They start out suspicious and so ready to demonize. It's a matter of ethics that one must always assume the best of people. Assume that they're probably trying to be good, trying to get along with others, etc.

Although this definitely can mean getting burned more often than one otherwise would, it is mostly a very good thing. It means actually that I work with roughly 50 or so people and I get along with each one. There's no one at all that I truly dislike, that I truly think badly of. And this attitude it seems has resulted in everyone I work with seeming to like me also.

But I do 'hate' mankind. As a whole this world is awful. We're stuck into such awful social norms.
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Pity. My 'friend' S hates the idea of being pitied. She's been fired twice in the last few months and is now mostly sitting at home with nothing to do. She also recently got a DUI... Also is seeing a counseler. And she observes to me that when you're unemployed, suddenly no one wants to hang out with you. Which is true and another example of the awfulness of the social norms of western society. But then when I say me and my wife would always be happy to hang out with her, she says, "no, I don't want pity! I was just observing this tendency..."

And I can't push the point because I'm worried that it's become awkward that I'm married. In truth, dammit, she is so attractive to me that I'm not quite thinking 'correctly'. And I don't know. So we hardly see each other. Perhaps because it's 'inappropriate' because I'm married and she's single. I don't know. So maybe it's not really a matter of wanting to not be pitied...

But this idea to hate being pitied. What's the difference between compassion and pity? In what kind of society are so many people worried they might get pitied?