Well articulated as always. Realizing that what I am averse to (beyond simple dislikes) is usually because it is unproductive, illogical, or a threat to me in some way (i.e. roadkill = risk of infection, which would be bothersome and uncomfortable) was an important step in my personal development. Pretending to be more emotional than you are (masking) takes a lot of energy. Like how you phrase it, I see people who mess with young developing humans as maiming or ending the next generation, which as a society is counterproductive. It makes zero sense, yet somehow people still do it. I have come to realize that I see things I’m not used or would never do myself in a different way than others do. There is less of a hairpin trigger between an appearance of a thing and my reaction, if any, compared to others. Oftentimes, upon further examination, someone or something that disgusts me is more a general annoyance or example of unproductive idiocy than something or someone I see as morally reprehensible. Also, I am not straight or cisgender and to some, my existence in itself is still considered “repulsive.” But it’s not; it just is and I just am and we all see life through subjective lenses. I never say this kind of stuff aloud, other than to my one sibling who gets it, because I know it wouldn’t go over well. But I can here and I appreciate that about your newsletter. And I do agree, once emotion-driven people in power have the ability to end lives, when or why would they give it back? Not a great idea.
Well written, as usual. It seems that you do have a very small version of the NT’s disgust reaction. How to decipher what is intellectual and what is emotional must be very difficult. Your observational skills and ability to communicate and rationalize seem to help a lot. I’m so sorry your family has gone through such a horrible thing.
from your work: He should pay for what he did, and if he was killed by the relatives of that child, I would disagree with their actions, but I would understand them.
Not only do I "understand", I would encourage the relatives to select one from among them to reek revenge upon him. (Am I stealing this from my Jewish heritage? hehehe- maybe!)
I learn alot from your posts and enjoy your work, which hopefully you plan to continue.
BTW: I use expressions like "I'm glad ...." "I'm happy that ....". When some people say these things, do they actually experience emotion?
Even when I say these things, or when I write these, I don't actually "feel" anything as far as I can tell.
One day, I came home to find my girlfriend had sex with another man while I had been working. It is my belief that I didn't feel anything then. I got her calmed down and told her something or rather and went on with the relationship. After awhile we separated, but not over that.
Apr 12, 2022·edited Apr 12, 2022Liked by Athena Walker
You experience disgust, but do not automatically form a higher abstract meaning to it.
This is somewhat context driven, for example, my half ‘n half was spoiled and so had a rank stink, but I didn’t assign a moral value to this.
However, sometimes we automatically assign moral meaning when someone does something we imagine would be disgusting, such as some kinds of sexual behavior we might not dare entertain.
They “must be perverted, evil, messed up” because they like it.
But, the color Red, pleasant or unpleasant, beautiful or ugly doesn’t exist in objective reality, just ask my Cat about lemons, she’ll tell you they stink like a catbox if she could.
Yet this drives body shame in our exposure of our mucous membranes, or smelly parts.
Becoming aware of pathogens, then assigning shame to sources of pathogens, or obsession with the “unclean” in the Old Testament
It’s a story of awareness of hygiene
In Genesis 3:6-8 we read: “when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:6-8)
Now compare this with their original creation state in Genesis 2:25 where we read “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
I may have told this story in Quora but I'm not sure
I have cattle and several years back a cow died near the edge of the pond. It was several days before I found her.
I get on my tractor and go to drag the carcass away to someplace where I can burn it and it was really rank. It was hot that summer and the cow had already bloated
Anyway, hooked the chain up and started to drag her and the body came apart.
The smell hit me and I experienced a reaction in what I refer to as my lizard brain.
In order to continue I got a bandana to cover my face and used Vick's salve to overpower the smell
I never felt any real emotion, it was strictly a violent physical reaction to the smell of decay. However it was a really strong reaction
BTW I can't take zombie movies seriously as I know that the dead could never sneak up on you, they'd fall apart fairly rapidly and they'd be preyed on from everything from vultures to opossums. :D
Until you pointed it out a while back, I had not thought clearly about how even though some people absolutely deserve the death penalty, it is a mistake to ever give the State that power. Now I realise that any discomfort I might have still had about the death penalty, which I broadly approved of, had nothing to do with the justness of the punishment but rather the risks in handing over such a power and it's potential for misuse. I'm kind of embarrassed not to have thought of this aspect before. Probably because I was putting myself in the position of the affected family who had a very reasonable desire for vengeance and that was all I could think of. So yeah, thanks for writing about this..
Well articulated as always. Realizing that what I am averse to (beyond simple dislikes) is usually because it is unproductive, illogical, or a threat to me in some way (i.e. roadkill = risk of infection, which would be bothersome and uncomfortable) was an important step in my personal development. Pretending to be more emotional than you are (masking) takes a lot of energy. Like how you phrase it, I see people who mess with young developing humans as maiming or ending the next generation, which as a society is counterproductive. It makes zero sense, yet somehow people still do it. I have come to realize that I see things I’m not used or would never do myself in a different way than others do. There is less of a hairpin trigger between an appearance of a thing and my reaction, if any, compared to others. Oftentimes, upon further examination, someone or something that disgusts me is more a general annoyance or example of unproductive idiocy than something or someone I see as morally reprehensible. Also, I am not straight or cisgender and to some, my existence in itself is still considered “repulsive.” But it’s not; it just is and I just am and we all see life through subjective lenses. I never say this kind of stuff aloud, other than to my one sibling who gets it, because I know it wouldn’t go over well. But I can here and I appreciate that about your newsletter. And I do agree, once emotion-driven people in power have the ability to end lives, when or why would they give it back? Not a great idea.
Well written, as usual. It seems that you do have a very small version of the NT’s disgust reaction. How to decipher what is intellectual and what is emotional must be very difficult. Your observational skills and ability to communicate and rationalize seem to help a lot. I’m so sorry your family has gone through such a horrible thing.
from your work: He should pay for what he did, and if he was killed by the relatives of that child, I would disagree with their actions, but I would understand them.
Not only do I "understand", I would encourage the relatives to select one from among them to reek revenge upon him. (Am I stealing this from my Jewish heritage? hehehe- maybe!)
I learn alot from your posts and enjoy your work, which hopefully you plan to continue.
BTW: I use expressions like "I'm glad ...." "I'm happy that ....". When some people say these things, do they actually experience emotion?
Even when I say these things, or when I write these, I don't actually "feel" anything as far as I can tell.
One day, I came home to find my girlfriend had sex with another man while I had been working. It is my belief that I didn't feel anything then. I got her calmed down and told her something or rather and went on with the relationship. After awhile we separated, but not over that.
You experience disgust, but do not automatically form a higher abstract meaning to it.
This is somewhat context driven, for example, my half ‘n half was spoiled and so had a rank stink, but I didn’t assign a moral value to this.
However, sometimes we automatically assign moral meaning when someone does something we imagine would be disgusting, such as some kinds of sexual behavior we might not dare entertain.
They “must be perverted, evil, messed up” because they like it.
But, the color Red, pleasant or unpleasant, beautiful or ugly doesn’t exist in objective reality, just ask my Cat about lemons, she’ll tell you they stink like a catbox if she could.
Yet this drives body shame in our exposure of our mucous membranes, or smelly parts.
Becoming aware of pathogens, then assigning shame to sources of pathogens, or obsession with the “unclean” in the Old Testament
It’s a story of awareness of hygiene
In Genesis 3:6-8 we read: “when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:6-8)
Now compare this with their original creation state in Genesis 2:25 where we read “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
What is body shame?
I may have told this story in Quora but I'm not sure
I have cattle and several years back a cow died near the edge of the pond. It was several days before I found her.
I get on my tractor and go to drag the carcass away to someplace where I can burn it and it was really rank. It was hot that summer and the cow had already bloated
Anyway, hooked the chain up and started to drag her and the body came apart.
The smell hit me and I experienced a reaction in what I refer to as my lizard brain.
In order to continue I got a bandana to cover my face and used Vick's salve to overpower the smell
I never felt any real emotion, it was strictly a violent physical reaction to the smell of decay. However it was a really strong reaction
BTW I can't take zombie movies seriously as I know that the dead could never sneak up on you, they'd fall apart fairly rapidly and they'd be preyed on from everything from vultures to opossums. :D
Until you pointed it out a while back, I had not thought clearly about how even though some people absolutely deserve the death penalty, it is a mistake to ever give the State that power. Now I realise that any discomfort I might have still had about the death penalty, which I broadly approved of, had nothing to do with the justness of the punishment but rather the risks in handing over such a power and it's potential for misuse. I'm kind of embarrassed not to have thought of this aspect before. Probably because I was putting myself in the position of the affected family who had a very reasonable desire for vengeance and that was all I could think of. So yeah, thanks for writing about this..