a touch of empathy

wonderfullife

Just read some of the replies on the tragic shooting in south africa. The latest in a long line of 'AH humour'. This is not a rant or a preach - it's just a hope:

Every human being on the planet has people who care about them - Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, friends. This girl had people who loved her. It's worth remembering.

The actor Javier Bardem once said;

''i think we are living in selfish times. I'm the first one to say that i'm the most selfish. We live in the so-called 'first world' and we may be first in a lot of things like technology, but we are behind on empathy''.

I just hope in future when someone has lost their life we could take a step back in here and remember that persons life had meaning. Whoever they are, whether they lived in Tipperary or Timbuktu and however they lived their lives - someone out there loved them.

They mattered to someone, just as people matter to us.

humanji

As Plato once said, "Some people are just c*nts."

Banjo String

2cool4school

tl:dr

**Vai**

Fúck me, you are in the wrong place.

We do all live by what Javier Bardem says though, Ill give you that.

--Kaiser--

This is pretty much par for the course for AH. Making distasteful comments about a tragedy doesn't make it any worse, nor does it mean that the originators of these comments lack empathy.

If you find this kind of thing upsetting, you probably shouldn't be here

1ZRed

I don't think it's necessarily being selfish, we're just bombarded by so many stories of people dying and getting killed these days that we've become quite desensitised to a lot of it, so the news often doesn't carry the same power it would have years and years ago.

--Kaiser--

1ZRed wrote: »

I don't think it's necessarily being selfish, we're just bombarded by so many stories of people dying and getting killed these days that we've become quite desensitised to a lot of it, so the news often doesn't carry the same power it would have years and years ago.

Exactly. If you felt sad every time you hear about something bad happening to someone, somewhere you'd end up curled up in the foetal position weeping 24/7. I find myself reciting a particular Yeats verse after reading particular nasty stories though:

Come away O human child
To the waters of the wild
With a fairy hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand

Riddle101

What can I say. Some people just have a dark sense of humor. When you read the news and see all the death and war and destruction in the world. It just becomes an everyday occuring thing. You make jokes because it's just a way to move on. Another one bites the dust, but it the cycle continues on the next day and the next.

Doesn't mean nobody who does it, doesn't feel empathy though.

FatherLen

i am sorry op, i agree with your sentiments but your post came across as whiny and contrived.

uch

That Pistorius fella hasn't a leg to stand on.

mark renton

"Our conscience takes no notice of pain inflicted on others until it reaches a point where it gives pain to us. In all cases, without exception, we are absolutely indifferent to another persons pain until his sufferings make us uncomfortable". Mark Twain, What is Man

davet82

Get your tits, get your tits out, get your tits out for the lads!!

:P

Wattle

uch wrote: »

That Pistorius fella hasn't a leg to stand on.

I don't get offended at the jokes themselves just the quality of them.

ScumLord

I haven't read the other thread but. I have a certain amount of empathy for people all over the world that are suffering but I won't infest a large amount of empathy to something that's happening on the other side of the world as if it was happening in my back garden. It's pointless. I reserve that for people around me that I can actually help.

anncoates

Funny when jokes about tragedy are always termed as thanks-whoring when in fact a large number of people appear to jostle around the threads to see who can get in first with a pious sternly-worded admonishment about jokes to a blizzard of thanks.

davet82

anncoates wrote: »

Funny when jokes about tragedy are always termed as thanks-whoring when in fact a large number of people appear to jostle around the threads to see who can get in first with a pious sternly-worded admonishment about jokes to a blizzard of thanks.

the anti-joke...

fcukers!

--Kaiser--

davet82 wrote: »

the anti-joke...

fcukers!

No, this is an anti-joke

"A man walks into a bar....he's an alcoholic and it's destroying his family"

And this is an auntie-joke

"Girl: We had Aunt Maud for lunch last Sunday.
Boy: Really? We had roast beef. "

anncoates

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

No, this is an anti-joke

"A man walks into a bar....he's an alcoholic and it's destroying his family"

And this is an auntie-joke

"Girl: We had Aunt Maud for lunch last Sunday.
Boy: Really? We had roast beef. "

So you think jokes about alcoholics and victims of cannibalism are funny?

Some low-life scum on this forum.

/please thank this post wildly

Latchy

I have so much empathy for so many people because we live in an age of 24/7 horror storys, one after another but I get annoyed when I see celebrity's like Martine McCutcheon make the headlines because they have declared themselves bankrupt and has beens like Gazza who take up tons of media coverage ,while gorging and feeding on the empathy that follows yet many many ordinary alcoholics and genuine poor people just have to get on with it .

aaronjumper

As long as the people I care about are okay it doesn't bother me.
If I was to feel bad every time something bad happened I would be an emotional wreck.

By all means help where and when you can, otherwise just let it go.

jaffacakesyum

aaronjumper wrote: »

As long as the people I care about are okay it doesn't bother me.
If I was to feel bad every time something bad happened I would be an emotional wreck.

By all means help where and when you can, otherwise just let it go.

This.

I'm going to be eating my hat shortly for posting this, because I always give out about generalisations :pac:

But I honestly think that the majority of people don't really care about things that happen to other people, so long as it doesn't directly affect them. And by this, I mean they might read a story in the news and think "Jaysus, 10000 people killed in China...oh look there's football on tonight", not that they're evil creatures who are glad that bad things happen to other people. And when I say majority, I mean majority of people I've met, from studying history, from political figures etc. It's basic common sense to me anyway but I understand making generalisations is silly.

Anyway, I think it's just a fact of life. People can't get worried about every single bad thing they hear in life or they'd be emotional wrecks. Sure it's probably one of the reasons I have depression, because sh1t gets to me wheras it doesn't to others.

Also you will be surprised at the number of lovely people you know who lack basic compassion too if it doesn't affect them. Just the other night down the pub I realsied my brother hasn't an ounce of empathy in him for something horrible that happened, simply becaus he doesn't like the person. (What happened I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy by the way).

People in life will always disappoint you. I think it's impossible to expect everybody to be empathatic of every little thing or every big thing that happens in life. It's best to try and deal with it what way you can, be it by making jokes, or whatever.

That's my depressing/hopefully insightful post of the day anyway :pac:

dollypet

AH is the bold class in school. Not the remedial just the messers. Skittin down the back of assembly. Telling the Teacher to fúk off under our breaths. But saying nothing when he turns around and asks us what we said. The ones writing on the toilet wall.

I don’t think anyone here doesn’t GET that its a tragic story. Its awful and should never have happened. The outer connections and connotation ie the violence and crime in SA and the large swathes of the country that are disenfranchised are truly mammoth to think about................

on the other hand bladerunner to bladegunner is (darkly) brilliant.

padd b1975

humanji wrote: »

As Plato once said, "Some people are just c*nts."

You have the power.

padd b1975

Latchy wrote: »

I have so much empathy for so many people because we live in an age of 24/7 horror storys, one after another but I get annoyed when I see celebrity's like Martine McCutcheon make the headlines because they have declared themselves bankrupt and has beens like Gazza who take up tons of media coverage ,while gorging and feeding on the empathy that follows yet many many ordinary alcoholics and genuine poor people just have to get on with it .

Stop reading tabloid rags.

HTML5!

It's almost as if people should feel bad for not feeling bad.

I don't know either of the peopel involved. I don't know their families. I don't know their distant relatives. They live on another continent. Their society is vastly different to ours.

I can't relate to any of what's happened. The best I can do personally is to feel some empathy for the victim and the families involved - that was when I heard it first.

Now, it's just another news story.

I'll get on with my life and will probably rarely give it much thought down the road.

If there's one thing I can't stand it's people pretending to care, because they're afraid of how they'll be perceived.

I think if most people are honest with themselves, this won't affect them all that much. You can maxim all you want and type the banal 'RIP' posts, but that doesn't make you better than me.

Talk is cheap, especially on an internet forum.

twinQuins

anncoates wrote: »

Funny when jokes about tragedy are always termed as thanks-whoring when in fact a large number of people appear to jostle around the threads to see who can get in first with a pious sternly-worded admonishment about jokes to a blizzard of thanks.

It's funny because you're both different sides of the same self-righteous coin.

Latchy

padd b1975 wrote: »

Stop reading tabloid rags.

^ Typical AH response from Ignorant poster who obviously thinks that mainstream news only make tabloid rags ,not the internet and who most likely bury's his face in one ( a rag ) every day .

anncoates wrote: »

Funny when jokes about tragedy are always termed as thanks-whoring when in fact a large number of people appear to jostle around the threads to see who can get in first with a pious sternly-worded admonishment about jokes to a blizzard of thanks.

That unfortunately as long as I can remember has been the AH way but people who feel real empathy don't have to prove anything to anybody .

The King of Moo

It's one thing to not feel empathy with someone you don't know and get on with your life.

But if one were doing that then one wouldn't be bothered to make any jokes. I'm not going to condemn jokes about tragedies and I've probably made one or two myself. They just run me the wrong way, striking me as using a tragedy as a means to gain validation through laughs/thanks.

Even though such jokes can even be funny (though I haven't heard any funny ones about this case), the few truly funny people I know never need to resort to them.

9959

humanji wrote: »

As Plato once said, "Some people are just c*nts."

As someone who's familiar with most of Plato's stuff - a lot of it on vinyl - I can attest that the great man would never deign to use the word 'some' in a quote such as the above.
Plato's first philosophical principal was uncannily similar to that of no-nonsense West Ham United manager 'Big' Sam Allardyce, namely, "when in doubt, get rid''.
Therefore the ancient quote, "People are just c*nts", should be allowed stand 'as was' without the embellishment of modern 'ghetto' argot.

Good day to you, Sir.

jaffacakesyum

HTML5! wrote: »

It's almost as if people should feel bad for not feeling bad.

I don't know either of the peopel involved. I don't know their families. I don't know their distant relatives. They live on another continent. Their society is vastly different to ours.

I can't relate to any of what's happened. The best I can do personally is to feel some empathy for the victim and the families involved - that was when I heard it first.

Now, it's just another news story.

I'll get on with my life and will probably rarely give it much thought down the road.

If there's one thing I can't stand it's people pretending to care, because they're afraid of how they'll be perceived.

I think if most people are honest with themselves, this won't affect them all that much. You can maxim all you want and type the banal 'RIP' posts, but that doesn't make you better than me.

Talk is cheap, especially on an internet forum.

Why do you assume people don't care and are "all talk"? There is a certain type of person out there who takes things to heart. Who thinks about things too much - things that don't directly affect them. Things that, although nice to consider, people really shouldn't have to dwell on as it's just too much to ask. I know because I'm one of those people.

And it's not in a "gah, I'm the most caring person in the world" thing. Believe me, if I could be an asshole I wish I could. But some people think about things too much and not let it go. So I can see why this certain type of person would get frustrated at the world for not showing empathy. When really, they are the normal ones. The ones who, yeah recognise a tragedy when it happens, but get on with their lives.

Irish Guitarist

I don't know anything about this story apart from the fact that someone was shot in Africa. I have no interest in it and I know that are more tragic things happening in the world.

Having said that I don't feel the need to make jokes about news stories like this. Not feeling empathy is one thing. Going out of your way to be a prick by mocking someone is another matter.

Latchy

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I don't know anything about this story apart from the fact that someone was shot in Africa. I have no interest in it and I know that are more tragic things happening in the world.

Indeed ...the names of the people involved didn't exactly roll of the tongue for me either but I only watched the main Olympic games and not the Para Olympics .This story isn't any more tragic than a couple of dozen others in any other week except I'm sure for the family ,friends and associates who knew them well .

3ndahalfof6

Porn came to mind, sorry.

Blondini

OP - You should find a place where you belong ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4lvCG2jFLM