You get to live a happy life and don’t care about all the horrible things happening all across the world. You wouldn’t feel terrible for children getting killed in a genocide half the globe away, every day. Blissful ignorance.
My response would be no. And I suppose most responses are gonna be no, but I also don’t think anyone who already doesn’t care would take a pill to start caring. That’s an interesting concept to me.
I’m sure that what me caring does to my mental state is far worse than however good is anything it does to anyone else. But by that logic, if everyone stopped caring, how would the world look like?
EDIT: It’s permanent. It doesn’t take away your emotions, it just stops you from caring about things like wars as long as they don’t directly affect you. Just like many people already have it.
Once people stop caring its when things will start to get worse.
Freedom is only something you miss when it’s gone, and something you don’t appreciate when you have it.
(sobs antidepressantedly)
What you describe as “not feeling terrible” is what I would describe as “empathy”, aka what makes us humans. Our ability to feel emotions regarding what is not happening to us but to someone else.
There is no need to go seek trauma-like events to experiment empathy, no need to witness a war, a child suffering or something deeply unfair. It’s the same empathy that also makes us able to cry real tears when watching/reading a love story, and sincerely worry about what’s happening to a fictional character that is, by definition, not even a real person. That is the same empathy that makes us feel good when witnessing someone happy in front of us, even a perfect stranger (like this sweet couple sitting in front of me in the bus, yesterday), or feel happy when we see kids playing around on the street or in a park. The same empathy that makes us feel bad when we see those same people not being happy. And it’s the same empathy that makes feel like helping some random strangers that obviously needs help. To care about others, that’s what make us human beings.
So, would I take pills to stop being a human in order to not feel bad? No. At the very least because I know I would also not be able anymore to feel happy, as I would not be able to feel much anymore, if anything.
if everyone stopped caring, how would the world look like?
robot like. De-humanized. A billionaire’s dream I imagine. Even more so that they would make us pay for having access to those magical (?) pills.
Personal remark:
Ignoring real trauma here, just considering our emotional reactions to events happening around us. Imho, the real issue with bad/sad feelings is not in us feeling bad. The issue lies in not being educated to accept and to handle those kind of feelings as a legit part of ourselves. Exactly like so many of us now seem to have become incapable to handle any disagreement or contradictory fact, btw. It’s most likely the same issue.
No pill ever will replace education, or its absence.
Dang it Dr Skinner, I am not taking Hapna
no need for pills, just plain old depression works too. Hell, it even makes you wish for end of the world
Can you get yours to talk to mine? For me it reinforces feelings for almost everyone else which then reinforces the depression. I often feel like I deserve this, not them.
depression is essentially the negative thoughts in your head. personally i try to consider them like foreign thoughts. Though watching humanity destroy the planet, not care about the rise of facism, being unable to make even simplest of long term plans where it counts and most of all, not being able to do anything about it is making me feel like we probably deserve this shit. So I deal with it by trying to simply not care about anything at all beyond the things i can do something about and hope there is somekind of justice after death.
Though not caring and losing feelings might just be part of the damage depression is doing to me/ has done. Everyone is different.
But at least try considering that as long as you try doing the best you can, you dont deserve the shit you have to deal with. And that the best you can do can sometimes be the best you are capable of doing at the moment.
What do you mean? I already don’t care about the state of the world.
I’m not convinced this pill would be better than death. Empathy is a large part of what makes life worth living, IMO.
If it was temporary? Probably. I’d take an afternoon off. Permanently, though, I’d have to say no.
My wife and I often tell each other that we wish we were stupid and happy.
I don’t want to stop caring. I just want them to turn off the torment nexus, even if it’s only for a little while.
Sertraline.
stop looking at social media. That does what you’re asking without any drugs
And also stop talking to people who look at social media?
you can ask them to stop bringing up doomer stuff. I find that most people respect that boundary pretty well.
I did but they only last like 8 hours and are very addictive
That’s just antidepressants
Have you been on them, or is this an arm chair take?
Sounds like anti depressants and anti psychotics
I’ve done this to myself. I don’t care less about people. I still want good things for people not matter how far away they might be. But I’ve worked hard to try to accept the difference between my circle of concern and circle of influence. I try to do what I can, and the fact that there is large-scale badness, does not undo my tiny-scale goodness. We can only change what we can.
Also, it’s important to know that social media and news pour money into making you angry and upset. It is worth taking a step back and limit your exposure to bad sources of news. I’m off all social media (other than Lemmy) and I follow news only via RSS, only via curated feeds and with heavy use of blacklisting phrases. There’s no point in ruminating and being fed the same trash news all the time. Work towards stopping feeling bad and starting doing good.
