But certain emotions are appropriate to certain situations,
Why? What determines that they are appropriate?
This is getting back around, I think, to your earlier point that there are certain proper ways to behave, and that society sets them and we are obligated to accept them as definitions of the right or good way to act.
That was problematical to me then, in the context of social intercourse, but is even more problematical to me here where the context is how do I react to what someone else says to or about me. And let's keep in mind that all SI is is written words. Nothing more than that.
Why should I expect society, or whatever else, to determine how I should necessarily respond when someone writes certain words to me? What's wrong with my deciding for myself how I will respond?
That's our difference, in a nutshell. You think that when people here on SI say certain things to me, I'm obligated to emotionally respond in a certain appropriate way. I think I'm entitled to respond in any way that suits my sense of who I am and who I want to be.
I think you will say right off the bat (the appropriate emotional response? <g>) that I misstate your position. But do I really? This is, I think, a fair interpretation of the position you have put forward. |
