Sunday, April 22, 2012
A Quite Problematic Idea
The idea that we choose our emotions, in addition to being almost obviously inaccurate, is problematic in that can easily lead to a 'blame the victim' mentality. Frankly, the idea of radical freedom in general can lead to this mentality, although it seems most apparent to me in relation to emotions. If one believes that individuals can choose their emotions, then two morally debatable conclusions result: firstly, that one is free to emotionally attack someone as much as one wants, because one's target can simply choose to completely ignore one's actions, and secondly, that people who are emotionally distressed (for example, people who are depressed due to poverty, abuse, or other external circumstances) are simply choosing to feel that way, and as such one is not obligated (or even encouraged) to assist them. Some people do actually seem to believe something along these lines; such people typically tell others who are depressed to 'cheer up' or 'get over it,' tell justifiably angry people to 'just let it go,' and assume that those who do not share their appreciation for certain things (for example, works of art) are simply being stubborn. In most cases, this sort of behaviour actually makes others feel worse rather than better, and dislike things (i.e. works of art) even more than they already do, out of resentment of the other person's annoying attitude.
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You can often see that attitude on youtube; people can be fairly aggressive when dealing with music tastes. Some people will look up artists that they do not like just to talk about how any person who does like that artist is a terrible person and has no taste in good music. Meanwhile, those same people are downright offended when someone posts something negative about their favourite artists.
ReplyDeleteI saw a post recently which stated that any person who does not like My Chemical Romance should burn in hell. People cannot help it if alternative rock music doesn't fall as nicely onto their ears. Some people are more prone to certain kinds of music, and exposure as a child can have a heavy influence on the person's music tastes. Interestingly, people have been researching the relationship between personality and music interests, and I suspect that there is some correlation. I don't think that people can change this, though some exposure to these categories is good because maybe there will be a song or two that one does like in that genre.