Do You Ever Not Care

[Kidlicious]

My general rule is that if people come to me for something they want to take advantage of me. There are exceptions, but I'm very carefull about automatically 'helping' people. I give it carefull consideration.

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by geeslaka
Not caring occasionally can be liberating, but never caring can be hellish.

Well speaking for myself, I have a lot of not caring to do to make up for all the caring I used to do. If that makes any sense.

[Shi Huangdi]

We have a duty to care for those less fortunate.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
We have a duty to care for those less fortunate.

Wha....?! I'm I reading this right?

[DarthVeda]

There is definately too much partisanship in washington these days... both parties are guilty of running themselves like seperate nations...

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
We have a duty to care for those less fortunate.

Duty? I'm beginning to lean towards the belief that one's only duty is to oneself. Because careing only seems to work if it goes both ways. If it's a one way arrangement, it only leads to bitterness. I heard once that a true cynic was once a romantic. I wonder now if that is true.

[geeslaka]

There is definately too much partisanship in washington these days... both parties are guilty of running themselves like seperate nations...

I thought they were seperate nations.

I heard once that a true cynic was once a romantic. I wonder now if that is true.

It is.

[Dis]

I'm a libertarian

by definition, I don't care

[st_swithin]

NEVER.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Sprayber


Duty? I'm beginning to lean towards the belief that one's only duty is to oneself. Because careing only seems to work if it goes both ways.

Depends on if it's personal, or generalized. If you're talking any personal relationship of any nature, then it does pretty much only "work" if it's two ways. Part of caring in the personal context, and most of it in the general context, is more about your own character than about the object of whatever you care about. If you care about a former friend who is on a self-destructive binge and doesn't give a ****, it reflects on your basic decency as a human being, but the trick is you have to keep things in perspective and not let it consume you - it's beyond your control.

In the general sense, if there's a genocide in the Republic of Bum****ia for the umpteenth time, it's a tragedy, but there's a big limit to what you can individually do about it - you have to realistically temper how much you care, with what you can do about the situation, and your own needs.

If it's a one way arrangement, it only leads to bitterness.

If you put yourself into it too much, yes. The trick is to balance your own needs, and make sure you don't neglect those.

I heard once that a true cynic was once a romantic. I wonder now if that is true.

A true cynic still is a romantic, but one who has collided with that freight train known as reality a time or too. True cynicism still requires a depth of feeling, it's different from the sort of vacuous, snide, pseudo-cynicism that's common among the mean-assed apathetic types who really don't give a **** about anything but themselves (and often not that, either.)

[Egbert]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
We have a duty to care for those less fortunate.

That is a very nice thing to say.

OTH I care more about stubbing my toe then about news of some fresh atrocity or disaster in some remote (or not so remote) place.

[Egbert]

Originally posted by Ming
Frankly, I don't care about this thread...

Does that mean we can swear, troll and flame with abandon?

[MichaeltheGreat]

I didn't say I didn't care.

[Egbert]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
I didn't say I didn't care.

Drat!

[MichaeltheGreat]

Especially because Ming is the pushover, er, um, nice guy. He even warns people sometimes. I much prefer the learning by (making an) example method.