Where do I begin? Well, hasn't anyone ever wondered, "do I really exist?” Like, for instance, I'm having a conversation with a friend and in the back of my mind I'm saying, "Am I really talking to someone? Or are they a figment of my imagination? Am I really just talking to myself?" Thinking this reminds me of when Banach says, " When we look at another person or object, we don't see it directly as it is; we see it only as it is represented in our own experience" and “No one else can feel what we feel”. Having quoted that last statement, do I really believe that? Honestly? I think that we all have feelings but when I say I’m depressed and you say “I know how you feel”, you are DEAD WRONG. That’s one of my pet peeves. No matter HOW much you’re situation is SIMILAR to mine, you do not know how I feel because your happiness may be different than my happiness.
And randomly switching to something different, I actually don't agree with Banach's idea of "absolute individuals". No matter how hard you try, it is impossible to be an absolute individual. Believe it or not, everyone is a mix of everyone else. Every mix is different, yes, but that changes the way we view individuality. Say that I like rock music, I didn't randomly say "Now I'm going to like rock". Someone showed it to me so I appreciated it. Ok, maybe that's a bad example. But say, I have certain political views, that doesn't make me an individual because other people may have those same views. Maybe they're not as intense as mine but they're the same. Actually, now that I think about it, you can somewhat be an individual based on your intensity level. Like, two people can be upset, but I could be more upset than the other person which bring me to "Only we feel our pains, our pleasures, our hopes and our fears immediately, subjectively, from the inside".
When Banach says, "When you think about it, each of us is alone in the world...we cannot feel what is going on in any one's mind", it reminds of every time one my friends has a problem and I feel completely useless because I have no idea how to fix it. Sure, there's the ever popular "everything's going to be okay", but how lame is that? And the fact that he says that we are alone is kind of a downer, regardless if it is true or not. As much as I hate to admit it, I believe he's right. Sometimes we all just fade into our little world and we can still be someplace but not really be "there". When that happens, I feel like that is when I'm most myself because I'm just in my own head. I know you're probably reading this like, "WHAT IS SHE TALKING ABOUT!?" and honestly, this is just proving my point. I'm fading away into oblivion again. However, despite the fact that he thinks we are alone in this world, I believe that, indeed, we can connect with other people. We can communicate and find similarities within ourselves and that other person and share common interest. Of course, this doesn't mean that we allow them into our head to reverse the "we are alone" statement, but we can let people in emotionally. We are alone truly alone if we allow ourselves to build a wall.
I like how you started out of thinking whether you are talking to your friend and that "you are DEAD WRONG" about having the same feelings as the other person. Also about the truly alone if we build a wall was a great imagery talking about Banach's statements.
ReplyDeleteI think I can understand that the arguments you are trying to build is that there is no absolute individualism and that we are possibly alone, in our own world and that the others can't feel what you feel completely because situations can be the same but there has to be something different that makes the feelings different.
I think that how everybody's feelings are different even though they said, "I understand what you are going through" that sort of conversation because even though we are human, we share different experiences, not necessarily that much difference but that we are able to sometimes get what others are talking about but a percentage of it, we cannot actually be 100% the same with others. Like your example with your friend, friends confront each other with their feelings to want to share/ or to be able to share the same feelings but are unable to completely. Also whether or not we are really here, or talking to someone, are we here just to talk to someone, to learn about things or like what you said in the last paragraph, whether we can experience the same thing as others. Whether we are just by ourselves, that we will fade away to our own seclusion, and forget the others?.....
I think you develop more on the absolute individualism or how you can have individualism even if you are interacting with others. Or whether have a wall, separating yourselves from others but still walking among them can achieve individualism.
This help me thought about, do we even need to be an absolute individual. Is there a point to it? whether we find our own individuality? If we isolate ourselves, what can we learn, because we are stuck in one place, we cannot observe as well as we can. And then starts to have imaginations that thinking that might be the answer, even though it might not be if it is objectively then what would they do? Because they would have no one to talk to. (Ah, I'm getting confuse~~...)
Reading your post made me laugh and I can agree with what your ideas are. Thanks for posting, hope to look forward to your next post!~
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I liked how you started off with the fact of do people feel what you feel because it is true how people have different levels of what they think happiness is and that might influence their response. I also like the quote that say ''When we look at another person or object, we don't see it directly as it is'' I agree with this because we don't really know what we see is express in the same way in another person's mind.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the point you made in the second paragraph that it is impossible to be an absolute individual because i also believe that just because you haver a stronger believe on a certain thing then another person it means that you share the same view but in different levels.
To comment you last paragraph which i thought was the most interesting i think that because people are themselves and feel happy in their own minds. Also i think that is one of the things people don't know about themselves that they are themselves in their own minds.
I liked what you wrote alot and it was interesting seen someone's same point of views with deferent way to defend or back up the situations.
Yazmin, I have to say if reading your post my already slightly scatter-brain became even more scatter-brained if that’s possible. But that’s a good thing I promise!
ReplyDeleteAs you know it also annoys me deep to my core when someone sings the same old song of "I know how you feel" been there done that, but many times I find myself trying to almost justify my feelings to others when I’m talking at them harping about whatever it is I need to harp about. Now, based on what you wrote I ask myself, why? Why do we all feel the need to justify our thoughts to someone else so maybe they can get an inkling as to what we feel? Next, I ask myself why do I care if they get it or not? Feelings are personal and now it doesn’t bother me one bit if no one gets it. I get it and that’s all that matters. I feel that you can agree to that.
Io add on to your thoughts about fading into your "own little world" which I can agree whole heartedly with might I add is that maybe having my "own little world" is like my mind telling me when it needs to submerse itself into my own world of "subjectivity"? A coping mechanism? Quite possibly, but I think when your heads in the clouds so to speak its up there for a reason.
"We can still be someplace but not really be "there". When that happens, I feel like that is when I'm most myself because I'm just in my own head."
You can only be yourself 100% of the time in your own head, anywhere else I think is not realistic. Not to say that, that leads to fakeness on the "outside world", just that sometimes thoughts get filtered and as a result not fully yours.
I truly wrote entirely too much I may have beat your "novel" ha-ha but your post made me think and I allowed my mind to wonder and now you have to read it so ha! :)
Great post and snaps for Yazmin!!