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Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

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Is compassion weakness?
    #22540948 -

I hear people go on and on about compassion being one of humanity's strengths but I personally find it to be a weakness. I really don't see the strength aspect of it. Seeing people crumble when horrors happen or weak at others suffering. Giving a damn about the suffering of others seems to be more of a liability than an asset. It's a trait that can be easily exploited to crush people or bend them to your will.


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As lightless oblivion devours you, drown in the ever-blooming darkness.

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: Thanatos10]
    #22541095 -

Come on, dude.  The "Might makes Right" argument?  Compassion doesn't mean you're weak.  For example, some of the most famous warriors take very compassionate action at times.  You're looking at it in a very peculiar way.  Perhaps an absurdly Machiavellian way.


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Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #22541107 -

Quote:
It's a trait that can be easily exploited to crush people or bend them to your will.


i disagree. dont confuse compassion for stupidity or ignorance.


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dripping with fantasy

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: quinn]
    #22541195 -

compassion and stupidity aren't mutually exclusive.

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: White Beard]
    #22541211 -

It's good to be able to see past it and give people what they deserve ... For example, if somebody walked in and raped my hypothetical daughter or tried to , he would not be in the justice system and I will show no mercy until his body stops moving and then maybe I will continue anyways until he stops breathing . To put others above you at all times is what makes people weak . To have compassion is very important but like I said its circumstantial


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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: White Beard] * 1
    #22541239 -

White Beard said:
compassion and stupidity aren't mutually exclusive.


can you properly be said to be compassionate towards someone/something while remaining ignorant of their actual circumstances?


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dripping with fantasy

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: quinn]
    #22541274 -

yeah. you might find an injured man on the side of the road, take him back to your house, heal him up, feed him, then he turns out to be a serial killer and murders you. You were still compassionate towards him regarding his injury but ignorant about him being a serial killer.

Another example is the refugee crisis. People are compassionate to the refugees because they come from shitty countries, but they're ignorant to the long term problems open borders will bring.

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #22541355 -

DividedQuantum said:
Come on, dude.  The "Might makes Right" argument?  Compassion doesn't mean you're weak.  For example, some of the most famous warriors take very compassionate action at times.  You're looking at it in a very peculiar way.  Perhaps an absurdly Machiavellian way.


Well because might does make right. Life is a power struggle. Whoever holds power is "right", insofar as that you can't actually contest them without equal or greater power. It's not a matter of deserving but a matter of strength. The power to hold versus the power to take.. Also, what warriors are you taking about.


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As lightless oblivion devours you, drown in the ever-blooming darkness.

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: Thanatos10]
    #22541377 -

The 'might makes right' view is the primary reason we're stuck in the mud as a species.  The violence will probably never stop.


"War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands." --H.L. Mencken


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Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: Thanatos10] * 3
    #22541404 -

personally i would rather live in a compassionate society than one devoid of compassion :smile:


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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: deff]
    #22541415 -

I don't have any Empathy. I dont.

Compassion I only partake in very important situations to me.

Most people get nothing from me.

This world is negative and positive, and negative things should be expected.
Negative things, aren't even actually negative, they are just Things. Only because they effect us in a way we wouldn't want, that's why they are negative.

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #22541662 -

DividedQuantum said:
The 'might makes right' view is the primary reason we're stuck in the mud as a species.  The violence will probably never stop.


"War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands." --H.L. Mencken


It's just the way of nature. Nature itself is nothing but a grand contest, yet it exists in harmony. You cannot deny that the apex predators are apex for a reason.

To your quote I say, "The essence of every world, every spell, every thought is power. Nothing else matters because nothing else exists."

I personally think humans weren't meant to be peaceful. They'd would get tired of it eventually.


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As lightless oblivion devours you, drown in the ever-blooming darkness.

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: MajickMuffin]
    #22541710 -

OP, you have no understanding of compassion. I cannot fathom how you equate it with weakness. Reading between the lines of your argument, it sounds as though fear dominates your life.

If I were weak and fearful, then I would likely feel as you do about the notion of compassion. As it stands, I train myself in every way possible to be strong (mind/body) and work daily to face my fears and be at peace with them. This means I am free to practice compassion towards my fellow human with none of the fears you describe. No one is gonna walk on me, no one is gonna fuck me over. If I must use violence to enforce this, I will, although it is a last resort. The fact I am staunch on these points has nothing to do with my feeling compassionate. 

Have a read of the wiki entry:

"Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to help physical, spiritual, or emotional hurts or pains of another. Compassion is often regarded as having an emotional aspect to it, though when based on cerebral notions such as fairness, justice and interdependence, it may be considered rational in nature and its application understood as an activity based on sound judgment. There is also an aspect of compassion which regards a quantitative dimension, such that individual's compassion is often given a property of "depth," "vigour," or "passion." The etymology of "compassion" is Latin, meaning "co-suffering." More involved than simple empathy, compassion commonly gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another's suffering.[2]"

And tell me where the weakness lies in that. All I see there is strength. IMO, to hide from what is clearly human nature and not practice for fear is weakness.


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Let it be seen that you are nothing. And in knowing that you are nothing... there is nothing to lose, there is nothing to gain. What can happen to you? Something can happen to the body, but it will either heal or it won't. What's the big deal? Let life knock you to bits. Let life take you apart. Let life destroy you. It will only destroy what you are not.
--Jac O'keeffe

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: Jokeshopbeard]
    #22541868 -

Compassion is often used to justify weakness.

Humans are multi-faceted. Absolute compassion is a weakness and a rejection of ones nature. Compassion without discernment is self-subjugation and will generally be taken advantage of.


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rahz

comfort pleasure power love     truth awareness peace I am      I feel      I do     I love  I speak    I see    I know

why there is reality and patterned, law-like consistency at all, rather than noise or non-reality is not a question physics answers. It's a question physics presupposes an answer to in order to provide other answers.

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: Rahz]
    #22541883 -

compassion is one of the traits that encourages and helps humans to band together in groups where their collective effort can be made to help everyone in the group.  Without compassion, humans might live like neanderthals in small family groups who come together only briefly to mate.  Try and imagine all the technological progress (as one example) that would be impossible if humans didn't live as social creatures in large groups.


Therefore, compassion is a strength.

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: Jokeshopbeard]
    #22541948 -

:thumbup: Well said! :yesnod:


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γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: Rahz]
    #22542019 -

You are speaking about a disorder and an unbalance perhaps best known clinically as Dependent Personality Disorder, or in it lesser form as a syndrome - Co-dependency. Compassion is the path to Wisdom and the Buddhist say it is Bodhi-Citta (Heart-Mind). Compassion must necessary be wed to Wisdom, (Discriminating Mind), just as this union is depicted in Tibetan Buddhism (especially among the Nyingma sect) as the Adi-Buddha, the Primordial Buddha - Samantabhadra and Samantabhadri engaged in coital union (Yab-Yum). For Compassion to be Compassion, it must necessarily express Wisdom, or else one has a Heart not balanced by a Discriminating Mind.

I have experienced and suffered co-dependency in my past and it was under that disorder of mind that I allowed myself to be severely "taken advantage of" by a seriously disturbed ex-wife. I still give too much of myself at times, too much time for clinical services that are paid with a flat fee, for example. (My wife helps me keep this in check), but I am no longer co-dependent, or perhaps I should say that it is in remission. On a more optimistic note, perhaps I have grown in wisdom since those days, but I do not allow deadbeats to coerce me out of free therapy when they waste my time by showing up by appointment with no money. :nono:

When a schoolboy showed up at my door one day (I used to be a counselor at his school, but he didn't actually know me) with a flat bicycle tire, I responded to his request to pump it up. But then, 4 more kids rang my doorbell in the next couple of days and after a second and final act of neighborliness I told the kids to spread the word that I will help someone in an emergency, but that I am not their personal garage service. One kid tried to dicker with me ("Just this time") but I said "no, I'm not gonna be an easy touch for you 'cause THAT will get around." Wisdom-mind discriminates real need from being "taken advantage of."


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γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: ballsalsa]
    #22542133 -

ballsalsa said:
compassion is one of the traits that encourages and helps humans to band together in groups where their collective effort can be made to help everyone in the group.  Without compassion, humans might live like neanderthals in small family groups who come together only briefly to mate.  Try and imagine all the technological progress (as one example) that would be impossible if humans didn't live as social creatures in large groups.


Therefore, compassion is a strength.


Actually you prove nothing with this statement. Strength in numbers is a quality shown throughout the animal kingdom. They do so without compassion but for survival of the species. Ants are capable of doing great things together such as building bridges and even boats out of their bodies, but again out of survival. In guessing that's human brains developed they began to improve upon this concept to up the odds of species survival. Hence our technological improvements. It's all survival. It could even be selfish. Realizing that my odds of surviving are better with a group then on my own.

Now people can exploit the trait everyone claims is a strength to manipulate people. Your entry JSB just proves this. People will do stupid and crazy things in the name of "fairness" and justice. Such terms are buzzwords to pull people by their strings. Why do you think loved ones can be tortured to bend the other to your will?

If you see strength I say you're delusional. Just because it's human nature doesn't mean it's something to hold onto. Confirmation bias is also human nature but we work to overcome that.


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As lightless oblivion devours you, drown in the ever-blooming darkness.

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: Thanatos10]
    #22542179 -

I might even conceed that it was training wheels during our early times, but given where we are now it's more of a liability.


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As lightless oblivion devours you, drown in the ever-blooming darkness.

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Re: Is compassion weakness? [Re: MarkostheGnostic]
    #22542430 -

MarkostheGnostic said:
You are speaking about a disorder and an unbalance perhaps best known clinically as Dependent Personality Disorder, or in it lesser form as a syndrome - Co-dependency. Compassion is the path to Wisdom and the Buddhist say it is Bodhi-Citta (Heart-Mind). Compassion must necessary be wed to Wisdom, (Discriminating Mind), just as this union is depicted in Tibetan Buddhism (especially among the Nyingma sect) as the Adi-Buddha, the Primordial Buddha - Samantabhadra and Samantabhadri engaged in coital union (Yab-Yum). For Compassion to be Compassion, it must necessarily express Wisdom, or else one has a Heart not balanced by a Discriminating Mind.

I have experienced and suffered co-dependency in my past and it was under that disorder of mind that I allowed myself to be severely "taken advantage of" by a seriously disturbed ex-wife. I still give too much of myself at times, too much time for clinical services that are paid with a flat fee, for example. (My wife helps me keep this in check), but I am no longer co-dependent, or perhaps I should say that it is in remission. On a more optimistic note, perhaps I have grown in wisdom since those days, but I do not allow deadbeats to coerce me out of free therapy when they waste my time by showing up by appointment with no money. :nono:

When a schoolboy showed up at my door one day (I used to be a counselor at his school, but he didn't actually know me) with a flat bicycle tire, I responded to his request to pump it up. But then, 4 more kids rang my doorbell in the next couple of days and after a second and final act of neighborliness I told the kids to spread the word that I will help someone in an emergency, but that I am not their personal garage service. One kid tried to dicker with me ("Just this time") but I said "no, I'm not gonna be an easy touch for you 'cause THAT will get around." Wisdom-mind discriminates real need from being "taken advantage of."


I agree with your thoughts on the subject. Compassion literally means shared pain. Compassion towards everyone is foolish. Each individual has the right to decide for themselves where their efforts are placed according to their own sense about things. This is according to the principal that we are born with the right to liberty. Subjugation of a individual and/or being taken advantage of comes with turnabout being fair play and deserved. Humans do have a natural desire to help those they perceive to be allies and may even extend their hand first in hopes of making more. People get taken advantage of. They live and learn, hopefully before they become destitute and deprived of their own labor.

Going "all in" is dumb to be blunt about it yet people are pubically disgraced by those in power for suggesting we do less than everything we can to help the multitudes without examining the possible repercussions and making prudent decisions.



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rahz

comfort pleasure power love     truth awareness peace I am      I feel      I do     I love  I speak    I see    I know

why there is reality and patterned, law-like consistency at all, rather than noise or non-reality is not a question physics answers. It's a question physics presupposes an answer to in order to provide other answers.

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Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

General Interest > Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology
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