Emotion

Steezie · Mar 17, 2008

I observed something a little while ago that interests me.

I was watching a music video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otZdiO0q6pU

And one of my friends saw it over my shoulder. She watched the video for a minute or two and said she was really surprised that it would display so much outward emotion in such an un-controlled fashion.

I thought about it and it seems odd how our culture treats emotion.We design things specifically to elicit an emotional response, but its not ok for individuals to display emotion.

With men its a little clearer, we still have the macho thing, the whole "real men dont cry" bull. But this attitude seems to extend over to women as well, its expected that women be emotional but when they actually DISPLAY emotion they are called drama queens.

People who let emotions spill out all at once are told they have :"anger issues" or that they are "out of control". We are expected to keep emotions bottled up inside us.

Why do you think there is such a confusing attitude towards emotion in this culture?

Bombila · Mar 17, 2008

Which video, Steezie? The page is full of them.

SedjmNeter · Mar 17, 2008

P.E.A.C.E and Blessings...

Interesting Steezie. Eye never thought there was a confusing attitude towards emotions. It always seemed to me that our society encourages the outward display of emotions. For example in many sports the favourite "player" is normally the one who displays his emotions because we are "able to relate to them better" (even though the truly great sportspeople are normally the ones who are more reserved and are able to go within themselves for inspirition). Eye dont know how many times these days eye hear "experts" say do what makes U happy. Encouraging people to part take in animalism and live their life based on their desires. And when someone says "how they feel", we applaud them for their honesty and congratulate them for being "true to their feelings".

Eye do agree that about the whole drama queen thing but eye think that is just a case of realising the futility of negative emotions when they are experienced by someone other than oneself (of course it wouldn't be long before the same one calling someone else drama queen would probably part take in similar outbursts for some reason, such is our hypocritical nature).

One thing is for sure we definitely...

design things specifically to elicit an emotional response

This is done to perfection by those in control who understand very well that the emotions take little if any notice of the intellect and the will making them a much stronger power and easier to abuse. Hence "sex sells". Hence why all the information in the world will not stop U from smoking, from eating whatever that is U are eating, from doing drugs, from cheating on your spouse etc etc.

The only confusion eye really Cee in our society about emotions is what they are really for and how do we use them instead of being used by them.

SHEM HETEP

Beanieboy · Mar 17, 2008

The video is no longer available.
Can you tell me what it was about?

Steezie · Mar 18, 2008

Beanieboy said:
The video is no longer available.
Can you tell me what it was about?

Fixed

meebs · Mar 18, 2008

Steezie said:
I

Why do you think there is such a confusing attitude towards emotion in this culture?

To quote from a Star Trek (TVH) movie:

"Whoever said the human race was logical?"

I think this appropiate. We contradict ourselves on a daily basis. This whole thing you are referring to is a product of todays society, self image and how we thing certain groups should behave, it's all display and certainlky doesn't reflect what might go on inside. (I say we but i really don't care if a man cries or a woman doesn't want to show how she feels or vice versa.)

Second of all, i think many of us are embarressed at other peoples displays of emotion, guys or girls. Even if we feel those things ourselves, we'll react when another person displays it because we can't empathise or maybe from the outside it looks funny.

I admit, i've gone through some terrible rages of temper and anger, yet laughed at others (say on TV) when i really shouldn't. I don't know, i think its because i was embarressed at the situation?

I've seen my mother cry at soppy movies or house makeover programmes and have not one idea why she would cry at them. I've teased her for it.

Interesting topic.

Edit: Guys might tend toward being less emotional (i know this is crap because of agressive tendancies) and girls might tend toward being soppy. It's biological, but i don't think its pronounced as much is made out to be. Some guys cry at soppy movies and i know some girls don't. I know im one of them

Maxwell511 · Mar 18, 2008

SedjmNeter said:
P.E.A.C.E and Blessings...

Interesting Steezie. Eye never thought there was a confusing attitude towards emotions. It always seemed to me that our society encourages the outward display of emotions. For example in many sports the favourite "player" is normally the one who displays his emotions because we are "able to relate to them better" (even though the truly great sportspeople are normally the ones who are more reserved and are able to go within themselves for inspirition). Eye dont know how many times these days eye hear "experts" say do what makes U happy. Encouraging people to part take in animalism and live their life based on their desires. And when someone says "how they feel", we applaud them for their honesty and congratulate them for being "true to their feelings".

Eye do agree that about the whole drama queen thing but eye think that is just a case of realising the futility of negative emotions when they are experienced by someone other than oneself (of course it wouldn't be long before the same one calling someone else drama queen would probably part take in similar outbursts for some reason, such is our hypocritical nature).

One thing is for sure we definitely...

This is done to perfection by those in control who understand very well that the emotions take little if any notice of the intellect and the will making them a much stronger power and easier to abuse. Hence "sex sells". Hence why all the information in the world will not stop U from smoking, from eating whatever that is U are eating, from doing drugs, from cheating on your spouse etc etc.

The only confusion eye really Cee in our society about emotions is what they are really for and how do we use them instead of being used by them.

SHEM HETEP

Not related to the topic of the thread but:

Can I ask when you use "eye" instead of the pronoun "I"?

Don't take this as me being the grammar police or anything like that. It is just what you are doing is original to to me and therefore I find you interesting.

Maxwell511 · Mar 18, 2008

Steezie said:
Why do you think there is such a confusing attitude towards emotion in this culture?

Essentially because opinions of problems are based on emotions but we understand emotional means of fixing problems generally don't work.

Basically, I "feel" this is wrong and I "feel" this is the way to solve it, doesn't work.

I "feel" this is wrong and I "think" this is the way to solve it, is much better.

quatona · Mar 18, 2008

Steezie said:
Fixed

Either unsuccessfully, or it´s broken again.

quatona · Mar 18, 2008

Steezie said:
I observed something a little while ago that interests me.

I was watching a music video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otZdiO0q6pU

And one of my friends saw it over my shoulder. She watched the video for a minute or two and said she was really surprised that it would display so much outward emotion in such an un-controlled fashion.

I thought about it and it seems odd how our culture treats emotion.We design things specifically to elicit an emotional response, but its not ok for individuals to display emotion.

With men its a little clearer, we still have the macho thing, the whole "real men dont cry" bull. But this attitude seems to extend over to women as well, its expected that women be emotional but when they actually DISPLAY emotion they are called drama queens.

People who let emotions spill out all at once are told they have :"anger issues" or that they are "out of control". We are expected to keep emotions bottled up inside us.

Why do you think there is such a confusing attitude towards emotion in this culture?

For clarity´s sake it might be a good idea to have a clear definition of "emotion" and what counts as "displaying emotions".

Basically, for me everyone is free to display their emotions all they like. However, I would like to keep the idea alive that emotions aren´t good advice givers in most every case.

I must confess, though, that I often feel helpless and clueless when people display their negative emotions towards me. Reacting reasonably and with arguments would be inappropriate (and oftentimes counterproductive in that it tends to strengthen the negative emotions of the person opposite), while pestering others with my negative emotions is just not my thing. I personally dislike and distrust the process of spreading negative emotions thoroughly. I am working from the conviction that the most significant thing about my anger is that it is my anger. I generate it, and I don´t feel entitled to make others suffer from it, hold them responsible for it or expect them to solve it for me.
In the best case, I find myself able to connect myself empathically with the person (reminding myself how horrible the state of being in negative emotions is, thereby preventing myself from responding with negative emotions).
However, this often leaves me with the negative emotion "Why is it that it´s always me who has to do all the work?"

SedjmNeter · Mar 18, 2008

P.E.A.C.E and Blessings MAX...

Maxwell511 said:
Not related to the topic of the thread but:

Can I ask when you use "eye" instead of the pronoun "I"?

Don't take this as me being the grammar police or anything like that. It is just what you are doing is original to to me and therefore I find you interesting.

In the Nation of Gods and Earths they have what is known as the Supreme Alphabet where "I" is replaced with "eye". Whilst eye am not a part of the NGoE, after studying it and building with those who are, eye took on a few things, that being one of them. It also fits well with my spirituality, the eye holding particular metaphorical significance.

SHEM HETEP

Bombila · Mar 18, 2008

Emotions are difficult because they are a part of us where the physical intersects with the intellectual. A person can experience anger because of something someone else says. The trigger is a bunch of words, the response is a rush of hormones. Just thinking about something sad may trigger hormonal responses that provoke emotion.

Possibly we find emotion (especially extreme displays) disturbing because responding emotions may be triggered in ourselves, even if we don't want that, or don't find it appropriate. We also see a person displaying extreme emotion as being out of control, lacking self-control.

Women may find the physical nature of emotions easier to understand and control, because of our biology. At puberty, women experience hormone surges that trigger emotions, among other things. Most women learn to compensate, to downgrade the importance of short term emotions while recognizing their power. Surrounding menopause, after years of fairly predictable hormone levels, women again experience unpredictable hormonal surges, and again have to learn to recognize the physical nature of the attending emotional experience, and to control reactions to that.

Men may have to pay closer attention to what triggers emotion in themselves in order to recognize the physical nature of emotions, and learn to not just react to them. It may be more subtle a process than the one women experience, and is also more even.

meebs · Mar 18, 2008

Bombila said:
Women may find the physical nature of emotions easier to understand and control, because of our biology. At puberty, women experience hormone surges that trigger emotions, among other things.

So do men

Maybe it tends toward men hiding emotions because some of them got bought up that way? Society has told men and women how to behave an feel?

Eh, i always feel like im opposing these arguments here. It is rebellion, but life's observations and personal experience.

I am (obviously) female, naturally aggressive and i do not understand emotion very much. Im not emotionaless at all by the way, nor am i cool and logical, im sensitive but not meaing the type who is sensitive to soppy movies, and emotional music etc.

I suspect men are not emotionless. Actually its obvious. All those stories and love poems written by men. Charles Dickens put emotion into his stories.

Seriously, if men are so distant and keep their emotions in check, then how do people explain chav and yob culture (the guys side of things)

I've heard people argue that women are more logical and others argue men are. I think we all experience emotions and all react differently. Yes, there is a tendancy to trends, but i think the reason people who behave a certain was is due to how they were bought up.

Bombila · Mar 18, 2008

meebs said:
So do men

Maybe it tends toward men hiding emotions because some of them got bought up that way? Society has told men and women how to behave an feel?

Eh, i always feel like im opposing these arguments here. It is rebellion, but life's observations and personal experience.

I am (obviously) female, naturally aggressive and i do not understand emotion very much. Im not emotionaless at all by the way, nor am i cool and logical, im sensitive but not meaing the type who is sensitive to soppy movies, and emotional music etc.

I suspect men are not emotionless. Actually its obvious. All those stories and love poems written by men. Charles Dickens put emotion into his stories.

Seriously, if men are so distant and keep their emotions in check, then how do people explain chav and yob culture (the guys side of things)

I've heard people argue that women are more logical and others argue men are. I think we all experience emotions and all react differently. Yes, there is a tendancy to trends, but i think the reason people who behave a certain was is due to how they were bought up.

I did not say men were emotionless. That would be untrue.

Of course socialization affects the manner in which we express emotion. My point was that, post puberty (which I should have mentioned - posting too quick), men are subject to a more even flow of hormonal influence, while women are subject to a cyclical influence, which may make them more aware of their emotions as physically influenced.

That young men sometimes act out the macho style of allowing their emotions to direct their activities in an exaggerated manner supports my idea - they are not really aware of the physical nature (hormones, adrenalin, testosterone) of their emotional responses, and have failed to control their responses.

I think we are speaking of different things. I was trying to describe the physical part of emotions. You are describing cultural stereotypes of emotions (legitimate, just not what I'm talking about).

cantata · Mar 19, 2008

Good emotions - like happiness and love - are the end of most human actions, so they're clearly pretty important. We ignore how we feel at our peril. I for one want to build a world in which people are actually happy, rather than one in which they feel they ought to be happy.

Received · Mar 20, 2008

It's probably not that hard. Having emotions signifies being alive, beyond wanting to get laid and looking to improve our pocketbooks. Having passion -- in the non-romantic sense -- is almost completely missing in our culture. We've utilized everything, converted it to a cash- or pleasure-value. This doesn't leave room for passion or emotion. Most of us are emotionless beyond the stimulus-repsonse sense; consequently, the minority is strange, foreign; consequently, we single them out. Play our gameless game.

Maxwell511 · Mar 20, 2008

SedjmNeter said:
P.E.A.C.E and Blessings MAX...

In the Nation of Gods and Earths they have what is known as the Supreme Alphabet where "I" is replaced with "eye". Whilst eye am not a part of the NGoE, after studying it and building with those who are, eye took on a few things, that being one of them. It also fits well with my spirituality, the eye holding particular metaphorical significance.

SHEM HETEP

Interesting, is that actually true or are you just messing with me?

I am going to look this NGoE thing up, I may have more questions later.

SedjmNeter · Mar 20, 2008

P.E.A.C.E and Blessings MAX...

Maxwell511 said:
Interesting, is that actually true or are you just messing with me?

I am going to look this NGoE thing up, I may have more questions later.

lol...

...no eye'm not messing with U.

SHEM HETEP

Maxwell511 · Mar 20, 2008

SedjmNeter said:
P.E.A.C.E and Blessings MAX...

lol...

...no eye'm not messing with U.

SHEM HETEP

I actually did look it up and I'm fully satisfied that you are not making this up.

I still have not found what is the significance of using "eye" instead of "I" in the Supreme Alphabet. Could you explain it to me?

godismyabba · Mar 20, 2008

Steezie said:
I observed something a little while ago that interests me.

I was watching a music video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otZdiO0q6pU

And one of my friends saw it over my shoulder. She watched the video for a minute or two and said she was really surprised that it would display so much outward emotion in such an un-controlled fashion.

I thought about it and it seems odd how our culture treats emotion.We design things specifically to elicit an emotional response, but its not ok for individuals to display emotion.

With men its a little clearer, we still have the macho thing, the whole "real men dont cry" bull. But this attitude seems to extend over to women as well, its expected that women be emotional but when they actually DISPLAY emotion they are called drama queens.

People who let emotions spill out all at once are told they have :"anger issues" or that they are "out of control". We are expected to keep emotions bottled up inside us.

Why do you think there is such a confusing attitude towards emotion in this culture?

go figure. I have often wondered the same thing. I work for a nursing home, we also have a seperate hospice and many of our residents are end-of-life. When people die, it's like no one wants to grieve or show a loss. We recently had one of our nurses lose her son in Iraq, and everyone dances around her afraid to ackowledge the fact of her son's death. It baffles me, IMO, we would all be much healthier mentally if we were free to express our emotions, good and bad.

I think a lot of people are afraid they will appear weak if they show too much emotion. I think the only way to change it is to try and raise our kids differently and let others see us express our feelings.

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