Burn Giordano Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 So, recently having a conversation with my father who i haven't talked to in a few years, writing to him i wrote or realised something which i believe is a decent 2 cents i'd like to put out there to bounce off people and see what have you. Not the greatest at wording things but the thought is. I said to him "you ask or want things of people but then take nothing else of them into consideration" I ended up saying this after he made a douche "I realise that you have affection to Marxist and communist people" when neither marxism or communism i've ever read into.. All i told him years ago is that i wanted to travel to Peru for ayahuasca. He contacted me because he wanted me to get a dual citizenship and travel to Finland.Kind of what i've abstracted from this is that (for lack of a better way to represent it i'll say), people are an accumulation of 'parts', a puzzle with a bunch of pieces they more than 'feel associated'. They feel this of that and feel this of this. Arguably, for how many things there are in and of the world, multiplied by how many people there are of the world, is the number of possible things which can be considered (the total picture), because there are no 2 people the same (though the environments we can grow up in may be), and not until a person expresses what they feel of whichever thing will i know what they feel if anything at all of it. Equally, since there are no 2 people the same and we are, as much as we have experience are equally limited by it, can learn from one another because one may look at such things differently or look at a different part of such a thing? idk if that makes clear sense.Thankfully we only associate with a few people. Any empathic person i believe will consider or wonder your view of such and such or whichever thing. Stefan often talks about finding (can't remember what he said specifically) decent empathetic people. I think such an empathic person would consider that for every thing this is another perspective. If you have a tree and a few people standing around it, each person sees the same tree but a different side of it and can say try standing here. In a bit of a hurry but my point is:"you ask or want things of people but then take nothing else of them into consideration"Your 'parts' are what you feel. Any truly or decently empathetic person, the things they say in respect of yourself will match or be based or revolve around your feelings (although they will see a different side of them so to speak), instead of being against the grain, or some entirely different imagination land fucking neurotic bullshit. Sorry rushed at the end there lolol :
dsayers Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 For clarity's sake, empathy is not the same as accepting somebody's viewpoint. If people were standing around a tree as you outlined and one of them describes a purple puppy, you don't actually have to walk around to where they're standing to know that either they're not describing the tree or the path they took to arrive at purple puppy is flawed. To accept their translation of the tree would not be virtuous nor beneficial. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure exactly what your point was. At first it sounded like you were talking about an exchange you had with your father. Then I got the impression that you were trying to caution against the use of summary labels. Finally, it seemed more of a plea to be accepting of others. Could you clarify this please?
Burn Giordano Posted January 29, 2014 Author Posted January 29, 2014 Empathy is not the same as accepting somebody's viewpoint. Ya I saw that what I wrote could look like that. I wasn't sure what to think because people feel all kind of things and can take serious things that aren't so or make up things that are serious, or culture. I don't necessarily mean accepting as much as I mean seeing, to see how another reacts to whichever thing, or lack there of, or ya purple puppy. Whats your understand of or how do you see empathy?
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