Sentimentality

[reasonvemotion]

"why should I care in any significant degree?"

This was written on another thread, which made me think about degrees in our emotions.

For me, sentimentality has no use. It is like the name on a file in a filing cabinet. You open the file marked, "sentimentality" and inside is filed the real emotions. Sentimentality is similar to a cover that hides specific emotions, which may not be necessarily be pleasant. One tends to think of yearning, passions but insincerity, even mushy effusiveness could be hiding in there somehwere. It is often used in conversation to skim over hidden truths. It can be used to deceive one another. I see it as word which relates to the past, a word without any meaningful application.

[Bernard]

Sentimentality is an ageing thing, like nostalgia. Attachment to places people and things acquire absurd values. It seems worse among the very well off. How does one counteract the tendency as one ages? Keep attitudes unfixed, move more? When one becomes sedentary the world becomes more enclosed and one has to make more of what's available in one's environment. I'm often bedevilled at why people, after there is a fire or something that destroys the house, go straight in to find the photos. Its incredible how important that is to some people: these fixed images of happy things out of the past.

[reasonvemotion]

I think a sentimental person, is a person who does not wish to face reality and can distort a situation or a perception of the actual facts. It is a fault.

[thedoc]

I'm often bedevilled at why people, after there is a fire or something that destroys the house, go straight in to find the photos. Its incredible how important that is to some people: these fixed images of happy things out of the past.

I must admit that this caught me off guard, and made me think. I would guess that old photographs become more important when they are gone, more so than when you can just lay your hands on them when you want. They are a record of your past and for some people having that grounding in the past helps to guide you into the future. There are numerous cliche's but one that comes to mind is that 'you must know history or you will repete it'. Knowing the mistakes you have made in the past will help to avoid those mistakes so you can make new ones. I can't say for certain but I would think that you will find that older people wil place greater value on photos of the past, perhaps it is just an aid to memory. We didn't even try to recover any of our photos due to the intensity of the fire, but there was a lot of joy when friends and relatives gave us copies of some of those old photos. I don't think I've explained it very well but I can say that if you have never gone through that experience it may be difficult or impossible to understand. Another cliche, you never really appreciate some things till you loose them. But I have learned that, having lost everything, I am much more appreciative of the things that we have reacquired, and we are also much more careful what we acquire. The old house was full of stuff that we were trying to figure out the best way to get rid of, now we are only getting the things we really want and need, but those old photos would really be welcome.

[Bernard]

How different is it from being emotional? I think we need to be careful here as this side of ourselves is the more complex and vast, yet it is not actively encouraged, so that a person who finds themselves with only their sentiments or emotions to fall back on is usually in a lonely place, and its much easier to fall into error from there.

[Bernard]

Yeah, that's what we do as humans: refer to the past for sources of strength. It usually becomes indulgence. I mean look at people who hoard; all these things they can't let go of are references to past events. Earlier this year a coach I was in caught fire. We all had to get out quickly and all our luggage was lost. I had quite a bit of gear, including a camera. Of all I lost it was the most annoying thing to lose. It wasn't expensive and the photos in it were not too important. I've decided not to replace it because it is such a psychologically heavy object somehow. I've had several periods in my life where I've purged my possessions down to very minimal levels. It has always corresponded with a break from family or a circle of friends I've grown used to. When it comes to culling like that its usually just a matter of what is practicable to keep, beautiful to behold and a joy to share.

I'm in my local volunteer bush fire brigade, and talk this year is of a potentially devastating bushfire season. I know where I am is susceptible and I've been goiung over bushfire plans, but know from experience and stories that there is very little anyone can do - fire brigades as well. When thinking of what I'd throw in the car the day before a front was due to arrive, I think one of the first objects would be the PC tower. Now if I were Muslim it might be the Koran, or a wino, it would be the bottle of plonk - the point is we put a lot of our attention into certain objects, and that unavoidably entails emotional baggage. If we want to examine and make an account of our sentiments, the first place to look are these objects and our association's we have with them.

Its interesting that this discussion is placed in metaphysics... why so RVE?

I'm often bedevilled at why people, after there is a fire or something that destroys the house, go straight in to find the photos. Its incredible how important that is to some people: these fixed images of happy things out of the past.

I must admit that this caught me off guard, and made me think. I would guess that old photographs become more important when they are gone, more so than when you can just lay your hands on them when you want. They are a record of your past and for some people having that grounding in the past helps to guide you into the future. There are numerous cliche's but one that comes to mind is that 'you must know history or you will repete it'. Knowing the mistakes you have made in the past will help to avoid those mistakes so you can make new ones. I can't say for certain but I would think that you will find that older people wil place greater value on photos of the past, perhaps it is just an aid to memory. We didn't even try to recover any of our photos due to the intensity of the fire, but there was a lot of joy when friends and relatives gave us copies of some of those old photos. I don't think I've explained it very well but I can say that if you have never gone through that experience it may be difficult or impossible to understand. Another cliche, you never really appreciate some things till you loose them. But I have learned that, having lost everything, I am much more appreciative of the things that we have reacquired, and we are also much more careful what we acquire. The old house was full of stuff that we were trying to figure out the best way to get rid of, now we are only getting the things we really want and need, but those old photos would really be welcome.

[Atthet]

It's nice to see you've been learning from my posts, darling. You are making me very proud of you, allemotion noreason! You can now see that personality is a lie, but do you know how far down deep this lie runs through people, families, and society?

[reasonvemotion]

Sentimentality is a ruse, which hides the inability to feel. Does not true feeling encompass "empathy" for others, whereas sentimentality is only a state for us to experience how it affects us.

Sentimentality is purely narcissistic.

The author James Baldwin referred to sentimentality as “the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion ... the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel.”

[reasonvemotion]

Its interesting that this discussion is placed in metaphysics... why so RVE?

I put here because I think people are not aware of what is really going on, when sentimentality is expressed.

[Atthet]

You're correct about the fear aspect. Judeo-Christian children are "educated" (forced and enslaved) to feel certain emotions in certain social situations in life, from an early age. For example, let's say somebody approaches the JC and expresses some sentiment. The JC is educated to concern him or herself with the problems of another. When, in reality, the JC doesn't care at all. Another example, a person tells the JC a joke, but it's not very funny. The JC "pity laughs", a lie, instead of not laughing at all, which would cause the joker embarrassment.
All these lies, expose a socializing and indoctrinated process, aimed to destroy the honesty and integrity of children, from an early age. These lies are socially engineered, to give people of distinct races, cultures, and ethnic backgrounds, a false sense of national solidarity, a common ground.

Civility
If the Judeo-Christian fully buys into the system of indoctrination, instead of rejected it, sentimentality is the result. After years of lying, the JC begins to believe in his or her own lies. He cannot express why he is unhappy, depressed, angry, and must suppress his or her true emotions. These true emotions eventually cause an internal stress, we call this "existential angst". Many JCs go through their entire lives with this inner turmoil of repressed emotions, causing a wide array of mental and physical health issues.

Sentimentality is one of the mental health issues. It is an occurrence of all those emotions bubbling up. The JC doesn't realize why he or she experiences these often "hateful" or "negative" emotions, which they feel guilty and ashamed of. They can't explain it, because they're too stupid to realize it. They're not intelligent or courageous enough to dig deep into themselves. Know thyself, know what is inside you.

The photos is a good point. A sentimental person attaches, often unexplainable emotions, to certain objects, memories, photos being a good example. He or she can't explain this attachment, but it comes from a wellspring of repressed "hateful" emotions. The JC is afraid of these emotions, and what they truly mean for him or her. It exposes the darker side of human nature.
The side Jews and Christians call "evil".

[The Voice of Time]

but know from experience and stories that there is very little anyone can do - fire brigades as well.

a little off-topic. Isn't it very easy to dodge fire by using stones and sand and other high-melting-point abundant materials? Create kind-of walls/dry strips that fire can't progress through... ?

[Bernard]

[The Voice of Time]

bigger fire, just need a bigger dry-zone ^^ although I must say that footage looks like it comes from a volcano and not ordinary forest- and field fires

edit: when I call it dry-zone I of course mean sand and stones... things that are too dry to catch fire, as opposed to vegetation and bio-material. You could of course also build small rivers though they could evaporate while rocks and sand will need pretty high temperatures to just deform and much higher to become liquid and actually move.

[Bernard]

In a fire where the air can actually ignite even jumping in a dam (we have three here) is no way a guarantee of safety, even at more survivabe air temps the smoke will suffocate, though turning a metal boat upside down and getting under that has worked. Safety is only ever 1 or 2 metres away in any fire - underground, but then you need a sealed bunker with its own oxygen supply as all air gets ripped out by the fire in no time.

[The Voice of Time]

well you got some time before the fire becomes that big though. I mean. Let's say the fire is made, it grows big, and it takes some time before people can notice. However, if you are organized into a group of people, then the word and communication should spread and organized activity should be meet rapid readiness.

The point is not to stop the fire, however, as low-populated areas would not have the capacity for such a thing, but to stop it from reaching populated areas. As first priority. And also grain fields and other forms of economical... stuff. All these areas could be covered gradually at front while the fire is progressing, throwing sands and stone at some strip making it impossible for the fire to grow fast, and making the job for the firemen to stop any fire managing to get past the sand- and stone-strip (which can't be too thick because in big areas you may need a shitload of sand for this to be viable), and some of them may be pre-covered by building strategic ditches. This is especially around grain fields and stuff like that which easily catches fire and costs society a lot of capital loss. But also around neighbourhoods not protected by road-networks and other such hindrances.

Fire may ignite across these strips but they would be easily accessible for extinguishing through their strategic positioning. Some thoughts for the planning, build ditches! Store and make it easy to distribute sand across the landscape to slow down fire in progress at strategic areas! Although I'm sure there are better things than sand, I just thought about it because of its abundance (though heaviness). The principle is strategic dry strips and non-biomaterial ditches.