Thanks for contributing to my thread…ossifer.
I can look forward to similar deep insightful commentary.
And thanks for maintaining this forum at high intellectual standards.
You’ve done an excellent job…for your master.
Liberals are so nice.
In the dark the tiniest spark seems like a roaring flame.
In the twilight, shadows merge and divergence seems indistinguishable; contradictions merge and synthesize.
In the light, the tiniest difference, the smallest flaw, is distinct and clear.
Liars prefer the twilight.
Must be mid day somewhere. Thought I’d introduce a bit a sailing speak to keep er in theme. Let out the jib, you’re falling off the wind. Geez it’s like you’ve never sailed before? I like to sail, I think I’ll stick around and keep your ship in shape.
A talentless mind wants to take credit for another’s talent, by becoming his proof reader.
This is how the chosen, chose themselves as worm-tongues; whispering in the ears of ancient royalty.
And yet you still know nothing of sailing.
Aegean
I would not quite word it that way but if you are saying that when we empathize and feel compassion toward someone we must be careful not to allow our emotions to become our masters but to rather be guided by our awareness, intelligence and firmness in helping someone then I can agree with you.
I think that it was Carl Jung who said that “Sentimentality is the superstructure erected upon brutality”. Sentimentality has nothing to do with empathy and compassion and can really only lead to abuse for both parties involved.
So I can agree with your wording up to a point but it does sound almost apathetic to me and devoid of caring. There is a balance that needs to be met between empathy and doing the right thing for the other party.
I maybe misunderstanding you here perhaps because there seems to be something missing from your equation.
I am defining empathy so as to differentiate it from sympathy and antipathy.
If we use the simpler method of projecting how we know ourselves - also prone to emotional and egotistical hyperbole - then we are simply and easily understanding other in relation to his circumstances; placing ourselves as we know ourselves, in their place.
This is indeed compassion and sympathy, and in rare cases, if we hate ourselves or what we were, then it may produce antipathy.
But that’s not empathy.
We failed to truly know other, but only know self in their place.
Empathy is difficult because it is a matter of degree. We gradually adjust our projection to the other’s essence, as we’ve understood it over long periods of observation, to see them, and not ourselves in their place.
We are all alike, but this does not mean we are clones - not even teins are absolutely alike.
So there can be serious… I’ll take it as interest beyond the absurd and a discussion of a more philosophical bent. Feel free to end any response with ‘tit wad’ or anything appropriate.
Empathy does fit a range with sympathy at it’s least end scale. But sympathy can lead to empathic feelings. Or grow into it. But at it’s extreme can we know an other’s feelings, thoughts, empathically? That would suggests telepathy which seems a stretch. So I’m thinking empathy exists somewhere between sympathy and telepathy in reason. Tough to do without being telepathic but not impossible if you’re sensitive and have had a broad range of experiences and emotional breadth yourself.
The opposite of a narcissist, is an empath.
A narcissist uses an inflated image of self to evaluate others.
A warped self-image produces a warped understanding of others, and the world, in general.
Low self-esteem is the opposite of narcissism, i.e., an under-estimation of self in relation to others.
Narcissism is more natural because natural selection works on the mechanism of trial and error, and over-estimating self produces choices with immediate consequences.
An empath uses self as a sounding board, a standard, but then methodically adjusts the levels of every perceptible trait, in relation to his/her won, to come to an more objective perception of other, as not self in a different circumstance, but a different self in circumstances.
You’ll never ‘know’ an other’s circumstance.
Not absolutely.
Did you red flag me?
Did I do a no-no?
Not even relatively.
The report feature is a red flag?
Just about every time you put fingers to keys, then click submit.
Keep it up, little daugy.
From thread to thread…heal.
Miss obvious Otis.
You’re so full of yourself.
Like You’re a nobody, “I have an IQ or 85”, “it’s not an identity that matters”. I’ll flag your ass for being a fuck up. You’re too smart an ass to play the game you’re playing. meme, gene, race, intellect, fuck you, fuck me.
Hypocrite. It’s a matter of record.
I’d hope shit’s like you hang around after the new year. Gives one pause to wonder about other.
Impressive.
Forum rules seem to be more flexible when you are dull and repeat popular beliefs.
Very selective.
You’re fairly dull too, there was a back handed compliment in there somewhere. =D>
5 days 'till Christmas.
As tension mounts!?! ?! ?!?
Why tension?
Joy, for many.