About Me

My photo
I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Sunday, May 21, 2017

"A person will suffer more intensely the more he or she is strong and independent. Given the apparent hopelessness of resistance, there is a powerful and continuous incentive for individuals to become less aware of their own feelings, beliefs and needs. Indeed, the only rational solution for an individual may often be to become dead inside, to become alienated from his or her feelings and desires. And it is exactly this internal deadness which has been declared the great sickness of modern man..."

David Edwards, Free to be Human, 1995

5 comments:

RTD said...

Hmmm. I feel as though I am gazing into a verbal mirror. Frightening!

CyberKitten said...

Only one (OK technically two) mirrors in my house. Not exactly a fan.

Brian Joseph said...

This is very interesting and very bleak, I must admit to having similar thoughts on occasion.

In the end I think as a defense against the world that it pays to go a little dead at times. However, if such a condition becomes permanent, I think that it would lead to very bad things.

Mudpuddle said...

I believe it's important to cultivate a sense of the fantastic...

CyberKitten said...

@ Brian: I agree that we can't walk around like an open wound and that we need to protect our psyches as much as possible. Being occasionally numb (can't you just hear Pink Floyd in the background?), comfortably or otherwise, is sometimes a necessity to get through things but, as you rightly said, when it becomes a regular feature you need to look at it more closely!

@ Mudpuddle: Definitely. My extensive reading of SF has kept my sane when all else failed!