Know What Makes Me Mad?

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Whenever there's a tragedy, people publicly weep and moan about how sorry they are for everyone involved. When I watch their public displays of sadness over human sufferings, I can't help but think that most of them are the same people who wouldn't befriend one of us if their own lives depended on it. How are we supposed to believe that they have so much empathy for others when they laugh, roll their eyes, or completely ignore people in everyday life who are different??? There's more suffering going on in this world than that which is associated with natural disasters, terrorists, etc.

You're absolutely right! They're so quick to feel for someone they assume is exactly like them, but if they met the person and learned she/he was different, their feelings would change immediately.

I feel no empathy for neither.

Number 1, what can I do to help with the suffering of the death of a person?

And 2, what can I do to help with terrorism + Poor kiddies flooding, bring a helicopter, and some weapons to save the day???

It's all a show

I've seen people who make people's lives miserable, then go around mourning the starving Africans and all the other "injustices" in the world.

Usually, no one cares. But many people can fake empathy...

Sometimes large tragedies do move me to heartfelt sadness. Usually my sadness is merely reasoned, though, not actually felt. What I feel is embarrassingly close to excitement. But I've heard that's normal.

And really, I don't think that a reaction of the will is any less genuine than an emotional reaction. We shouldn't be hard on anybody who wishes they felt sad about something terrible. It doesn't make them fake. Neither does a failure to act on one's sympathies make a person fake. Just imperfect.

Because they are feeling empathy.

Except in their case it quickly dies off and they forget about it as they are too caught up in their lives to care.

That and caring makes you look good.

Havn't you ever had an uncle or a grandparent die, and you've cried at their funeral and said something like I wish i had asked him this or I should have visited her more often etc. etc.? I think it's the same kind of thing, on a larger less personal scale. We don't think about others until something bad happens, because we take for granted that they're there.

Don't get me wrong; I feel sorry for people involved in these tragedies too. I just don't believe in the current trend of "bragging" about our grief. Like Aradford said, "caring makes you look good." These people tell themselves that they must be good, because they felt sorry when this or that happened. In turn, they're hoping that others will notice it too. For extra measure, they'll weep and moan a little more the next time something bad happens to a large group of people. At the same time, they've just snubbed someone who doesn't fit in with their current group of peers. What must the thought process be, if there is one at all? "No. No. I'm a good person. Remember when I cried the whole time I watched the new 9/11 movie? A bad person wouldn't have done that."

I about puked when these kids who were really nasty to me at school were on TV (this anti-drunk-driving speech in the gym at my school was announced on the news and this person who lost loved ones made a speech, and the news cameras filmed the reactions of some of the kids... including the kids who picked on me, who appeared to be crying!) They then asked me, "Did you see me on TV?" Braggarts. I do think it was genuine though, at least to some extent. After all, drunk driving is the kind of thing they'd do.

In May of this year we lost our 21 yr old grandson, Aaron, in an automobile accident. He was alone and fell asleep at the wheel and ran off the road into the Pine woods. He died instantly. He did not have Asperger's but I can't see that as having anything to do with his death and the grief and mourning that followed. Over a thousand people showed up at the funeral service at the church, lines of people waiting their turn to see him for the last time and try in some way to comfort his family, especially his mother, my eldest daughter. There is no way these people were being phony. They truly felt the need to pay their last respects to a wonderful young man and to do or say what ever they could to ease the burden of his shocked and grief stricken family. I watched as each of them stopped to embrace my daughter, many of them sobbing in disbelief. (This is very difficult for me to write) She didn't know many of them, but they knew of Aaron, maybe they had only met him once or twice, but they knew that they had to be present to make a statement that his life mattered and that he was loved and would be missed. Even though it was hard for my daughter, physically and mentally exhausting, to stand at the front of the church next to her son's body, she was able to do it because she knew these people were sincere, and that she needed to comfort them as well. People she had never heard of sent money to help with the funeral expenses, sometimes just a dollar or two from a child or an old or poor person who read his obituary in the paper and wanted to help in some way. I have never witnessed such an out pouring of love and compassion for an "ordinary" young man and his family.

The outpouring of grief over the death of Princess Diana was outrageous.

Especially the little old ladies who were saying things like "Well, she always looked so pretty". Yes, of course she did, that's because she was busy spending all of the money that could have funded your pension increase....

people are so quick to pour out sympathy and s**t
especially to the rich
its insane-I don't go to funerals and don't beleive people should like, mourn like they do
in some cultures death is celebrated, you know
I don't like how were expected to cry and such for people we didn't know and did nothing for us
(rich people I'm talking about)
I mean disasters are tragic, but I won't cry over things like 911 and stuff

I did feel sorry for the people in the Twin Towers and on the planes, because they weren't directly responsible for the Taliban's hatred of US culture, they just got caught up in it. I am sure a lot of nice, kind-hearted and honest people were killed that day, and I am saddened by the horrific experiences they muist have gone through and also for their families who have been left longing for loved ones who won't come back. That is sad. The fact that I can't do a single thing about it doesn't make it any less sad.

However, corruption and aggression breeds more corruption and more aggression. Much of this stems from secret US foreign policy over the last 60 years, and to a certain extent British, Dutch, French and Portugese empire-building before that. Once you introduce cruelty and exploitation into people's lives, it cannot easily be forgotten. That is the key lesson that needs to be learned here - misery produces nothing but more misery.

Yes; celebrate your life and the lives of others! Let's not get offended, but celebrate the fact ath we're together! Let's not get angry, but celebrate the fact that we're planning on building a commune. Let's not get disgusted, but celebrate the fact that we'll have our own personal space!