“One of the painful signs of years of dumbed-down education is how many people are unable to make a coherent argument. They can vent their emotions, question other people's motives, make bold assertions, repeat slogans—anything except reason.” - Thomas Sowell

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[–]magnora7 11 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 2 fun -  (12 children)

Many see reasoning as "boring", and life is supposed to be exciting according to American cultural norms.

Plus if you reason and you're proven wrong, you're just wrong, because that's how logic works. That's no fun. Especially if you're not good at it, and constantly being judged for it, like in school. You learn to not even try to be rational because you're always wrong anyway. Learned helplessness.

But if you feel something, no one can take that away from you even if it logically makes no sense. It's yours to own. And in a world where ownership is being lost by the middle and lower classes, and things are being taken often in ways that don't logically make sense to you, at least you can always have your own feelings. It's the one thing you can own that cannot be taken from you.

People relate logic to being shamed at school, and then in turn relate emotions to free-thinking and perhaps even mental freedom itself. So there is a preference for emotions over logic. Logic is seen as something a person is forced to do, where as feeling is seen as something voluntary and easy.

I think that's the cultural mindset that caused us to get to where we are, if I had to distill it down.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Your feelings aren't just your emotions though. Your feelings encompass more than just your emotions, and THAT is something they don't teach you. It's dangerous. Edit: I should say that I agree with you. But when people say "you hurt my feelings" they really just mean "you made me feel a negative emotion/an emotion I didn't want to feel" It shows that there are lots of immature people. They don't realize that their feelings and their senses are great tools, just like logic and reason. It's just easier to get lost in emotions and "feelings"

[–]yayblueberries 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

But when people say "you hurt my feelings" they really just mean...

They mean, "Whatever you just did/said that I CLAIM hurt my feelings is something you should never do or say again, even if you have all right to do or say it even though it is not actually abusive or hurtful at all." It's an attempt at power and control almost every time now. It's not just immature people, it's people with a somewhat hidden agenda that they feel superior to you and need to continue to feel superior to you and control you. Immaturity is not that dangerous; the need to have power over another definitely is. They realize their feelings are great tools and use them as one to destroy other people.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You just described an immature person, and a dangerous one at that. Good for you.

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Your feelings aren't just your emotions though.

Please give an example of a feeling that isn't an emotion.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Well for one thing, you can feel your thoughts, and your fingertips touching your keyboard, and the air touching your skin. Those are senses, yes, but you feel them just like you can feel your emotions. They are all "feelings" and I'm surprised you haven't recognized these things as such. Now, there can be a separate conversation concerning the meaning of these words and I'd be happy to dive into it with you. You'll find that this idea of our feelings = our emotions is relatively new.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Sensory sensations don't qualify as feelings imo, they're sensory data not feelings

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I disagree, but that's fine. I personally don't see a difference between my senses and my emotions, beyond the fact that one is more concrete and can be shared with other observers (senses) and one is more fluid and changeable (emotions). Either way, you DO feel your emotions and you feel your senses. So, I don't agree with you (or society) separating these things from each other. I'm not saying that there isn't a distinction to be made, don't mistake me. Your feelings simply aren't always emotions, and your emotions aren't always properly felt. You sell yourself short if you don't heed your "feelings", and you sell yourself short if you get lost in them. They are tools at your disposal, not things to rid yourself of, or to smirk at.

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Fair enough, you may have a point there

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I appreciate you for hearing me out, Magnora. Especially because you run this site and respond to the user-base. I was ridiculed a lot in highschool for trying to make this distinction between feeling and emotion. It wasn't until I had a solid English teacher who taught me that a lot of writers throughout history have had similar sentiments, one of them being James Joyce. As a guy who started to go blind in his later years, he seemed to experience different emotions and sensations than he had before, making him write slightly different as a result. Another good author who talks a bit about this is JRR Tolkien, although I only saw this sentiment show up in his Letters (a compilation book of his letters published by his late son) not in his big books.

[–]asterias 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Many see reasoning as "boring", and life is supposed to be exciting according to American cultural norms.

I think that this is generally a Western thing, though American cultural influences might have played a role here. Somehow this has intersected with the current sentiment of living to satisfy vice and nothing else and now we ended up with this materialistic society where hard facts are not accepted well and are even perceived negatively.

Little Soldiers by Lenora Chu poses some interesting questions on this.

[–]Djfjfjdbffj 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks for that link. I live in China and can confirm. It's a lack of available school and testing to organise society. Everything outside of the testing system is lost. This includes any morals not required for teaching a class at scale. AKA stuff you thought was essential for a functioning society but turns out to be fluff ethics.