Jan08 2022
Theme: empathy, being selfish, building YOU
Words: 710
Read Time: 3 sips of beer
Empathy may just be the most diluted and insidiously used emotions in the World.
before this sounds too calloused or evil;
I -feel-. See empathy, even think I experience it (it’s hard to judge your emotional depth vs. what others experience. This is one of the true wonders of Our World)
I know moments when someone needs a shoulder to cry on or a listener to vent to. In these moments I open up, show vulnerability or the security of a lighthouse during a tsunami.
But this is only for close loved ones.
And the moment I leave that emotional environment, I shake off whatever emotional world they dragged me in to.
So i’m not demonizing being a caring person or having Feelings, I’m making the point that you’re often excepted (unrealistically) to be empathic/to care about ANY and EVERY injustice in the world.
This spreads you thin, has you focusing on too many fires at once….
virtue signaling - the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue.
(copied from google)
Essentially this is when you say/do things that stereotypical cause others to view you as moral, or selfless, or caring. Whatever it may be.
We’ve already established in Jan 6th writing that most people don’t even know what they really care about or like- they’re only reflections of the Loudest ideas from their social or professional/educational groups.
In this regard, nothing is as prominent as EMPATHY.
You can make a social pariah of yourself if you go against the grain when empathy is involved.
There a couple examples of this I’ll explain; and this really is a layered post that will probably get knit-picked by those sensitive and insecure enough to feel attacked (fuck you)
Wether you like it or not you’re being judged at all time by how empathetic and caring you are, especially to those less fortunate.
Loudly exclaim in a social hangout that you don’t care about starving children in Africa and watch tears or anger fill the eyes of those saying they care oh so much (the same ones who aren’t doing anything actionable)
Cov19d is taking advantage of this too, in a hefty way.
Where one of the main reason people are getting vaxxed is to protect their less healthy neighbors or the immunocompromised they know.
Two of my sisters got vaxxed and their reason was so that our grandparents are put in danger from our exposure. I can’t argue with their rationale because, after all, that’s personal but this borders virtue signaling and is the point of all this.
I subscribe to the belief that first being selfish, means you can be infinitely selfless later in life.
For ex. I’m sure you know someone like this (because it’s such a cliche) but graduates college with humanitarian degree, moves to africa to help locals, build a couple houses, rations out food/medicine etc. Feels good, but what’s happening?
Is altruism a lie? a falsehood? does true altruism exist when you’re always receiving that ‘feel good, i-helped-people’ feeling?
Not demonizing this pathway, if that’s what your Heart says then do it. But the route I think is better =
commit to being selfish with your time and energy early on. In your 20s say “NO” and “I DONT CARE” and “STOP TALKING TO ME” more. This way you can focus on building something of your own. A business, service, audience anything with a real world impact.
So now, if you’ve followed this hypothetical life path - you’re 29, worth a chunky 6 figures, multiple assets, and you can outsource some work to free up time.
Now you have the ability to donate REAL money to these causes, or the free time (After outsource) to get yourself on the ground in the middle of the arctic to save penguins, or the middle of the jungle to stop deforestation. Whatever it is you feel called to Change.
Stop trying to save the turtles when you don’t know how you’re going to pay rent for February.
Stop spreading yourself so thin with faux activism that you never Build yourself into someone who can create real change.
Have a good saturday night!
Winston
Souled Idea
The Ice Man
The Coldest To Ever Do It
