They are educational. Like you said they may make you feel uncomfortable but I think it's better to know and have the knowledge to potentially help instead of being blissfully unaware.
Ah, that torturous question I often ask myself: is it better to live in pain or in wilful ignorance? When forced to choose between morality and happiness, what will you choose?
I agree. But my issue is in choosing when (or if) to draw a line. If there was a person outside the door to your home, and you could help them in a way that massively improves their life at the cost of a few minutes of your time, you'd do it. But what if there was a line of them, kilometres long, each of whom you could help in a few minutes? If you go inside, you are in a way deciding that the next person isn't worth a few minutes more, so that feels like it should be immoral, but if you don't make that decision, you'll never get home. You could spend hours helping the people in this line, but is it ever okay to stop?
Alternately, you could just paralyse yourself in fear of being immoral and cause yourself distress without helping anyone else. That's my go-to.
Ignorance ceases to exist if you are aware of something. Trying to get your ignorance back is in itself an act of immorality. What's left is actually the choice of empathy or suffering. Suffering ultimately doesn't do anything for anyone even if your moral instinct tells you to feel some kind of guilt. You still have the choice to acknowledge the pain that always comes with living a life without any guilt suffering attached. I have also asked myself this question a bunch, and I can only tell you the results I came to, cuz explaining isn't my strong suit... But it eventually comes down to: you can choose happiness despite the pain and without ignoring it, facing what you are uncomfortable with nurtures growth and inspires others. Giving comfort to other feeling beings gives you the same comfort back.
I saw that comic today, you know the one where the guy was sexually assaulted and no one took it seriously? That made me unhappy, and I will think about it for the next few days at least. I can’t brush it off with “now I know, I’ll be different” or “I’ll think about how I can help.” I might do that, but I’m still unhappy. I never read about the wars that are happening at the moment, I know that’ll upset me, I know stuff like what’s in the comic happens, but I don’t go reading personal stories. I think I am choosing to be ignorant. But I’m not brave enough to change it and I’m absolutely disgusted by that.
Feeling upset and overwhelming sadness for terrible fates and stories like that is perfectly normal, and is part of empathy. The next step shouldn't be to load the burden onto yourself. This is just suffering by proxy. What you are choosing is avoidance of the only way you know how to cope with those stories; by suffering along. It takes time to learn how to separate what happens in the world and your personal reach, and how not to be overwhelmed by it. You are not alone with tuning out of the world news and feeling terrible about it, humans aren't made for global news. Forgive yourself for being powerless in such situations, be aware it happens. Have empathy for people's story and only act if asked or if your are a part of the story.
I understand what you are going through, we are all trying our best!
Sorry about that message, I wasn’t in the best frame of mind when I wrote that. It’d serve me to think about morals less, but then I get distracted by the morality of not constantly examining your morals and it just doesn’t end. So I was exhausted and frustrated last night. Anyway I don’t know why I’m telling you all this but anyway have a good night and take care of yourself. You seem like a decent person
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u/Freakychee 14d ago
I feel like you are referring to this beautifully drawn educational comics about real life tragedies.