What is real vulnerability?

[NigelW]

I believe the term vulnerability may be used incorrectly when describing emotions.

 

Being vulnerable is defined as the inability to withstand the effects of a hostile environment.

 

Being honest, as I have seen, has been called being vulnerable. Either the person is in a situation where withstanding the effects of the hostile environment is not possible or not.

 

If the person withstands the effects then by definition it is not vulnerability.

 

It is true that protection/defense is the ability to withstand the effects of a hostile environment because by definition it shows that one can withstand the hostile environment.

 

It is not true that vulnerability is associated with being honest because it is the opposite by definition if the person does withstand said environment,

 

So if you are honest it is because you believe that you are not vulnerable.

 

Also if you are not honest it is because you believe that you are vulnerable.

 

I am totally open to being destroyed. This idea has been bugging me all day!

[MysterionMuffles]

Do you mean to say withstanding it as a shell or truthfully internally withstanding the effects of a hostile environment? Because there are some people who are deeply hurt but build defenses to make it seem like they're impenetrable.

I think honesty IS vulnerability because you go in knowing that you may be attacked for it. To me, vulnerability would mean feeling comfortable with expressing openness and negative feelings. How can honesty and vulnerability not be synonomous if the callers to the call in show become honest about their experiences, while also showing that they have nothing to hide. They are not guarded, thus they are vulnerable--open to attack, but I think received with welcoming arms when they are given the chance to open up.

[NigelW]

Hi Rainbow Jamz,

 

I will try to make as valid and accurate arguments as I can.

 

Being terrified that you might be attacked for something and avoiding is different than knowing that you can survive and doing it because in one you think it will be your undoing and in the other you think you can survive. I would assume that most people want to survive.

 

By definition you must not be able to withstand the hostile environment to be vulnerable. Which means there is no self defense because being in an interaction where you are able to kick someone's ass who attacks you is different than being a dependent child.

 

When I was a child I developed a defense against vulnerability to attach to my parents, but now that I do not face the same potential vulnerability I am capable of being honest and surviving interactions that would lead to abuse because I am a grown man.

 

In my experience I thought that saying certain things as an adult would make me vulnerable. It only revealed how empty other people were when they tried socially humiliating me. I am saying that people calling in for a conversation only do it because they think they are not vulnerable because there is plenty of evidence to support the openness of the listener conversations.

 

You are right, though. There are people who are hardened by their childhood experience but I would argue that is only because they think they are in the hostile environment. I still think it's true that vulnerability is not honesty because to be vulnerable you must be unable to withstand the hostile environment. I will agree that if there is a perception that being honest in an environment will trigger hostility that is threatening to the life of that person that they are in a sense being vulnerable. Truthfully it is not vulnerability once again because the threat of dying is not the same as an adult.

 

If Stefan thought that releasing his podcasts would lead to his imprisonment, would he do it?

 

Thanks for reading my post.

 

I look forward to your response.

[NigelW]

Sorry, maybe I didn't communicate effectively.

 

As a child I chose behaviors that would not lend me to be vulnerable. I chose behaviors that would keep me safe.

 

Now that the stimulus is gone I no longer need to behave in that manor to survive because my capacity for safety is a lot higher in that I can relax in my apartment all weekend or go for a bike ride.

 

I am speaking from my experience and I think that if I had continued on my old path with no self knowledge that I would have remained vulnerable to attack, addictions, and a loss of integrity because it was all I could do to survive as a child. To be a slave to words and terribly weak willed individuals in other words.

 

So someone who has self knowledge is really arming themselves to the teeth against the words of others.

Like a swordsman who is putting on a full suit of armor and grasping the sharpest blade to defend against physical danger.

I agree that the swordsman is vulnerable to attack, but it's safer than not if you want to have an identity.

 

Does that make any sense?

[Psychophant]

Real vulnerability is similiar to the so called the real scotsman fallacy. According to thefreedictionary definition, vulnerability is susceptibility to physical injury or emotional attack.

 

If I would run naked through a women's dressing room, I would be susceptible to physical attack, especially in the groin area but I wouldn't be incapable of fending off the attack or defending myself against it. It just would depend on  number and skillset of the attackers, therefore: susceptability.

[NigelW]

Compared to being overpowered and spanked by a woman, you are not vulnerable I would hope.

I mean to compare being a child vs being an adult and you have the power to chose not to do such a thing.

While a child doesn't have a damn choice.

 

I am unfamiliar with that fallacy. Can you walk me through it?

[NigelW]

I will agree that the title is vague but the capacity for choice is so much higher for an adult that to say that an adult is being vulnerable by being honest is not true. I would not be exploring this definition if I did not think I could handle someone disagreeing with me or if I thought it would harm my physical health.

 

The topic should be more accurate. Something like Adults are not as vulnerable as children and you are only honest if you think you are safe.