um... What? in Journal

  • May 28, 2019, 11 a.m.
  • |
  • Public

I feel like the world is devolving into some kind of funhouse musical horror seseme street of feel-good narcissism.
A grown adult woman whom I respect (older than moi) posted this article along with a wave of virtue signaling diatribe about the poor homeless people; https://invisiblepeople.tv/making-eye-contact-with-homeless-people-is-important/?fbclid=IwAR11I_5CANPjcc5BIjEpawa1sjQ0U6XC5ksSiblVRnzjsUjuoEYJZCWmcaY
I really like to read; and I love to write. I daresay I’m quite good at it, too.
But this. This is some of the worst writing I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m questioning the woman who posted it as I read, dumbfounded; did she even read the article? Can she read? Did she not see past the most obvious, the most glaring emotional language, complete lack of reason or evidence?
There is absolutely no content in this entire article! That is a true accomplishment; this writer has got to be sitting down to a self congratulatory steak dinner about now. Selling complete drivel that people will actually waste their time on.
Everyone, repeat after me. Feelings are not an argument.

SO WHAT IF HOMELESS PEOPLE FEEL OSTRICIZED? Obviously no one gives a shit, or they would do something about it.

[talking of ignoring homeless people] “It’s a common behavior, but what’s strange is the number of people who don’t fully realize what they’re doing.”
This writer offers absolutely no evidence and that is aggravating- this line above is possibly his/her “experience”.
I’d argue that people know exactly what they’re doing.
We didn’t evolve for several billion years to waste our time and energy on people who do not share our values. And that is fundamentally what a homeless person is;
Most homeless people are homeless because of poor personal decisions:
“Among those with the highest scores (8 or more on a 17-point scale), more than half who temporarily resolved their own housing situations or went to live with family ended up homeless again.” via https://youthtoday.org/2018/11/chapin-hall-report-finds-homelessness-risk-assessment-tool-highly-accurate/
How easy was that? Type in “risk of homelessness” into your favorite search engine and viola! Information based on evidence. Whoo! That was tough.

So. We’ve established that people don’t care about homeless people for good reason, and that homeless people typically are homeless by choice.

Great. Let’s have a pity-party for the homeless to make ourselves feel better about the situation, shall we?


Deleted user May 28, 2019

What is the good reason? That they make poor personal decisions? You don’t think we should have empathy with those who make poor choices?

Miss Chiffs Manager Deleted user ⋅ May 28, 2019

Not at all.
This is not an excuse, nor any type of apologetics for human behavior.
I am merely pointing out the sheer hypocrisy and manufactured virtue of those who lecture about human behavior.
If the lecture is about how to change human behavior for the betterment of people, then provide evidence that this behavior will indeed result in positive outcome and have no negative outcome.
Again, feelings are not an argument. Not empathy, not pity, not the fleeting satisfaction of virtue signaling.
As for what good reason there is for making (and acting upon) value judgments, read through my last few posts.

Deleted user Miss Chiffs Manager ⋅ May 28, 2019

I have read through your last through posts actually, I kept seeing them coming up on the front page. They all had a very similar feeling on them - quite cold, to be perfectly honest. I found them hard to digest, made me a little uncomfortable. But I’m an odd soul, I like things that make me uncomfortable because they challenge me. They make me analyse my response and interrogate my own thoughts etc.

I just feel like not everything is an argument. Some things in life are a feeling, they can’t necessarily be rationalised. It doesn’t make it less real.

But! It probably is a good point in the conversation to say that I am a priest, so I’m kind of in the business of feelings / empathy / virtue etc. So, probably why it grates on me to read it. Interesting though, to see a different viewpoint.

Miss Chiffs Manager Deleted user ⋅ May 31, 2019

I debated about responding here. Mother always told me, if you don't have anything nice to say...
But, we are all adults and I'm not going to disrespect you by dismissing what you have to say or avoid hurting your feelings.
I do appreciate your feedback. It's always nice to get an honest opinion.
However.. of course everything in life is not an argument, and feelings are real, etc. But these are just platitudes. Let's be authentic, please.
I think (yes, I wrote think, not feel) that emotional and feeling based actions are infantile. Not because I don't see value in feelings and emotions. To the contrary, they are invaluable. Feelings and emotions are like signposts; they come to us whether we will it or not, we see them, experience them; they are part of our world and as real as physical reality. Maybe even moreso.
Yet, to react to emotion and feeling without thought is infantile, by definition; this is what infants do. Reaction is like instinct; it requires no thought; no virtue.
Therefore to speak of emotion and feeling as if they are yours, as if you somehow brought them about to signal your virtue, is hypocrisy. Yes, we feel pity for the poor. Can I claim virtue for having pity? Absolutely not.
True virtue is a result of action, thought and spoken word. These are what an integrated Human Being does, fundamentally. Feelings are merely informative of what direction we should be headed in. Like signposts; this is exactly how emotion should be regarded. No one will find happiness by trying to turn off their engine repair light.
I'm not sure why you felt you needed to explain your relative authority over a topic so general and fundamental to the human experience as feeling/ empathy/ virtue etc. Perhaps merely an appeal to that authority? A statement of superiority on the topic?

Deleted user Miss Chiffs Manager ⋅ May 31, 2019

To be fair, I don’t think you disregarded your mothers advice there - or at least, I didn’t take any of it as “not nice”.

That actually makes a lot more sense now that you’ve explained it further, and I do agree that feelings without actions are hypocritical. I know I can’t say ‘I feel so sad about homelessness’ and claim that alone is virtue, of course it isn’t.
I suppose, from this particular entry, my main point of contention was with the idea that if someone makes bad choices that it means they are beneath our help and assistance. Perhaps I am reading it wrong though- it had been a long day.

I also want to apologise if it sounded like I was claiming authority or superiority. I do see how it may have come across that way, but really I was meaning it as a short hand way of explaining that my thinking tends to be heavily emotion based, rather than claiming that my way is the right way. Just as someone might say they were a scientist to explain why they were more concerned with hard evidence or something. It was just tossed in a little carelessly, so sorry if it sounded a bit high and mighty or whatever.

You must be logged in to comment. Please sign in or join Prosebox to leave a comment.