I think I just felt compassion

[Jgib5328]

I was in my dorm's bathroom getting ready for bed and all of a sudden I see a centipede at the top of the sink. I rationalized that I had to kill it, "because it could reproduce". It was really an awkward situation because I didn't have anything to hit it with, so I was forced to splash water on it. This bug really wanted to live. I kept slashing water on it and kept sprinting for it's life (literally). So after about a minute of splashing water on it, I finally got it to slow down, but it still kept fighting back. At that point I was starting to feel bad. I finally decided to find an object to hit it with, so I hit it a few times into the water that built up in the sink and let it drown to death. I felt bad about it, and I still kind of do now. I don't care about dying kids in Darfur or Huricane Katrina victims, but I feel badly for a lowly bug?

Anyone ever have something like this happen to them?

[Solaris]

Because you identify with the bug on a subconscious level and it feels like destroying yourself.

Also, for non-feeling dominant types, it's easy to not care about death and destruction from which we are far removed. When it's in your face, and you are doling it out, your brain freaks out and goes into overload.

Of course, I'm simply applying what I would think of/for myself in your situation. Maybe it resonates with you, maybe not.

[Jgib5328]

Because you identify with the bug on a subconscious level and it feels like destroying yourself.

Also, for non-feeling dominant types, it's easy to not care about death and destruction from which we are far removed. When it's in your face, and you are doling it out, your brain freaks out and goes into overload.

Of course, I'm simply applying what I would think of/for myself in your situation. Maybe it resonates with you, maybe not.

I think the reason I felt bad was because I shared a connection with the bug. It was like a battle, I was trying to kill it, and it was trying to survive. It lasted for like 2 minutes too, so I mean I shared an experience with the bug. I think that's the only reason why I felt compassion. I still don't think I'd care about people from Darfur if they were right in front of me, but who knows.

[Solaris]

Reminds me of an Augusten Burroughs essay I read in which he has a battle with a mouse in his apartment bathtub. It's disgusting and hilarious all at once.

[Windmill]

I do feel compassion sometimes for the bugs. Not all the time, but sometimes I do, when they struggle. Its empathy. How would I feel.

Those rare times I feel true empathy for humans though is horrible. I mean true empathy. Perhaps others feel it a lot but I've only experienced it a couple of times and its been sort of overwhelming both times. They were both in relation to how guys who I rejected (which is like 2, the end all amount to the amount who've ever had interest in me ;) but yet they seem to fall hard, 'tis strange) must feel.

[Pinkie]

Why did you have to kill the centipede? Why could you not just take it outside or something?

(I know nothing about centipedes, by the way - we don't have them in my neck of the woods.)

[Antares]

Eh. I'm not a vegetarian, but when I see the live animals looking at me, I just can't eat them. There was this once, we were choosing our animal to slaughter and grill, I saw the lambs and sheeps and their gaze was so soft and adoring. I'm not kidding. They follow me around and love being in my company. I actually like their meat, but just looking at them makes me rethink my preference. The same affection for them stopped me from eating most fish if I can help it. I don't eat shark fin soup and croc meat and I refrain from eating tuna whenever possible just thinking of the thousands of dolphins that die along with them.

There was this once a spider invaded my bathtub. I have an irrational fear of insects and arachnids and I did the only thing I could think of: I hunted it down with my deadly arrays of water by flooding the tub (not really flooding. More like filling it up). I watched it struggle for its life but the walls of the tub was too steep to escape from and I felt a twinge of sympathy and wanted to end its life as soon as possible, but at the same time I was terrified of using a tissue because I'd have to literally come in contact with it. In the end I pulled the plug and washed it down the drain.

[Paul V]

That's how it starts. Next thing you know, you're feeling sorry for that poor kid that lives on the streets.

On a personal note, I like feeling compassion, it sets me apart from the rest of the world (and no, I don't think that most people actually feel compassion. About 75% fake it).

[Kotetsu]

I don't often feel compassion towards animals or humans, but when I do I always seem to end up feeling guilty about it, regardless of whether or not I could/can have done/do anything.

[Jgib5328]

Why did you have to kill the centipede? Why could you not just take it outside or something?

(I know nothing about centipedes, by the way - we don't have them in my neck of the woods.)

Why would I carry a centipede outside? I kinda get spooked by bugs, so it would've made me feel pretty uncomfortable. Thinking about it now is kinda giving me the creeps.





Jgib5328 added to this post, 2 minutes and 1 seconds later...


There was this once a spider invaded my bathtub. I have an irrational fear of insects and arachnids and I did the only thing I could think of: I hunted it down with my deadly arrays of water by flooding the tub (not really flooding. More like filling it up). I watched it struggle for its life but the walls of the tub was too steep to escape from and I felt a twinge of sympathy and wanted to end its life as soon as possible, but at the same time I was terrified of using a tissue because I'd have to literally come in contact with it. In the end I pulled the plug and washed it down the drain.

Pretty much my situation, it's inconceivable that I'd actually come in physical contact with such a repulsive thing.





Jgib5328 added to this post, 0 minutes and 53 seconds later...

That's how it starts. Next thing you know, you're feeling sorry for that poor kid that lives on the streets.

On a personal note, I like feeling compassion, it sets me apart from the rest of the world (and no, I don't think that most people actually feel compassion. About 75% fake it).

No way, I'm never going soft, this was just a fluke.

[thecraig]

As much as we (INTJ) like to deny it, we do have emotions. Of all the NT's we have the highest placement of F in our heirarchy of cognitive functions. I think our dominant funtion Ni enables us to very effectively put ourselves in some one elses shoes and coupled with our Fi enables us to imagine what we would feel like in the given situation. This is essentially what empathy is. Feeling what some one else feels.

In this specific instance with the centipede, I would guess that you developed a certain amount of respect for this critter and it determination to survive. This might have lead you to Fi for it in its struggle.

[Zilal]

I've noticed that people often feel more for animals than for other people. Centipedes aren't one of the typical ones, but okay, it's an animal. (I find these things (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) in my apartment all the time, and they're about the creepiest animal in the world, but I still try to gently put them outside.) But it's crazy how people write hate mail to, like, bonsaikitten, but won't lift a finger to stop genocide etc.

[robin.]

Why do people hate bugs so much? It's pretty irrational. I mean, really, unless it's like a black widow or something, what's the thing going to do to you? Especially a centipede! The most those things can do is crawl up in a ball and hope that you go away.

Don't get me wrong, I'm creeped out my some bugs (spiders mostly--they look kind of evil and crawl way too fast...I can almost feel them on me when I look at them), but they have as much of a right to live as I do. (They just don't have a right to live *near* me, haha.) I either take the thing outside with the cup and paper method (cup over bug, paper under cup, cup/bug/paper complex outside) or if it's a gross-looking spider I'll get my dad to take it out. If he's not around, I usually just stay out of that room for a while, and when I go back it's gone, never to be seen again.

As far as compassion goes, I definitely feel it more for animals than people. Animals are helpless to some extent, and they need us to take care of them for survival (on an individual level, of course, not the whole species...they've been doing quite alright in that respect!). I'm also a pseudo-vegan (pseudo because my mom rescues abandoned domestic ducks and keeps them as pets, so I'll eat their eggs, but I don't eat or use other animal products), and was raised a vegetarian by my mom. (She's an ISFP, which is supposed to be an artist/animal lover...exactly her, the animal part kind of rubbed off on me, but not to the extent of rehabilitating them like she does.)

I wish I could feel more empathy for humans...I mean, I'll fully recognize something bad happening to a group of people, but I can't *feel* it. It's usually easier for me to feel empathy if it's on a one-to-one basis; I never feel as bad about natural disasters as I "should," whereas they depress my mom for days.

On the whole, I think that compassion is a purely positive thing to have, as long as it doesn't interfere with making decisions that are the best for everyone. (If you had to save your friend vs 100 people, don't pick your friend, etc...but I think that's in the realm of logic, not compassion, as compassion could apply to both sides.)

[Uytuun]

As much as we (INTJ) like to deny it, we do have emotions. Of all the NT's we have the highest placement of F in our heirarchy of cognitive functions. I think our dominant funtion Ni enables us to very effectively put ourselves in some one elses shoes and coupled with our Fi enables us to imagine what we would feel like in the given situation. This is essentially what empathy is. Feeling what some one else feels.

I would agree. This explains why I can be so touched by films and books (I even cry easily when I'm watching a film or when I'm reading). This and the thing with animals vs. actual people has me think...do we empathise more because films/books/animals are often more "idealistic"? Animals can't talk back, so you're basically free to project upon them what you want. Films and books often feature archetypes or people that - even if they are villains - we get to know completely (weaknesses, thoughts, doubts etc.) and thus seem known and perhaps more ideal that way.

[Jgib5328]

Why do people hate bugs so much? It's pretty irrational. I mean, really, unless it's like a black widow or something, what's the thing going to do to you? Especially a centipede! The most those things can do is crawl up in a ball and hope that you go away.

Don't get me wrong, I'm creeped out my some bugs (spiders mostly--they look kind of evil and crawl way too fast...I can almost feel them on me when I look at them), but they have as much of a right to live as I do. (They just don't have a right to live *near* me, haha.) I either take the thing outside with the cup and paper method (cup over bug, paper under cup, cup/bug/paper complex outside) or if it's a gross-looking spider I'll get my dad to take it out. If he's not around, I usually just stay out of that room for a while, and when I go back it's gone, never to be seen again.

As far as compassion goes, I definitely feel it more for animals than people. Animals are helpless to some extent, and they need us to take care of them for survival (on an individual level, of course, not the whole species...they've been doing quite alright in that respect!). I'm also a pseudo-vegan (pseudo because my mom rescues abandoned domestic ducks and keeps them as pets, so I'll eat their eggs, but I don't eat or use other animal products), and was raised a vegetarian by my mom. (She's an ISFP, which is supposed to be an artist/animal lover...exactly her, the animal part kind of rubbed off on me, but not to the extent of rehabilitating them like she does.)

I wish I could feel more empathy for humans...I mean, I'll fully recognize something bad happening to a group of people, but I can't *feel* it. It's usually easier for me to feel empathy if it's on a one-to-one basis; I never feel as bad about natural disasters as I "should," whereas they depress my mom for days.

On the whole, I think that compassion is a purely positive thing to have, as long as it doesn't interfere with making decisions that are the best for everyone. (If you had to save your friend vs 100 people, don't pick your friend, etc...but I think that's in the realm of logic, not compassion, as compassion could apply to both sides.)

It's the instinct of humans to be afraid of bugs, snakes, and heights. It is a survival mechanism. Bugs and snakes have poison and falling off something that is high up causes you to be maimed or killed, so our brains over time programmed us to be afraid of these things so we could survive more easily. Plus, bugs are just so creepy.

[AgentofGaming]

It's the instinct of humans to be afraid of bugs, snakes, and heights. It is a survival mechanism. Bugs and snakes have poison and falling off something that is high up causes you to be maimed or killed, so our brains over time programmed us to be afraid of these things so we could survive more easily. Plus, bugs are just so creepy.

I know it's sometimes irrational to be afraid of harmless insects, but they are definitely creepy, and the thought of them reproducing where I live is the stuff of nightmares. Not to mention they can bite.
Bees are what keep me from going outside, I never did anything to them yet they fly around me in circles in attack mode.


AgentofGaming added to this post, 2 hours and 8 minutes later...


I do feel compassion sometimes for the bugs. Not all the time, but sometimes I do, when they struggle. Its empathy. How would I feel.

These struggles for life seem like the weird friendships that come out of two people duelling to the death but both manage to survive.

[The Rose]

I was in my dorm's bathroom getting ready for bed and all of a sudden I see a centipede at the top of the sink. I rationalized that I had to kill it, "because it could reproduce". It was really an awkward situation because I didn't have anything to hit it with, so I was forced to splash water on it. This bug really wanted to live. I kept slashing water on it and kept sprinting for it's life (literally). So after about a minute of splashing water on it, I finally got it to slow down, but it still kept fighting back. At that point I was starting to feel bad. I finally decided to find an object to hit it with, so I hit it a few times into the water that built up in the sink and let it drown to death. I felt bad about it, and I still kind of do now. I don't care about dying kids in Darfur or Huricane Katrina victims, but I feel badly for a lowly bug?

Anyone ever have something like this happen to them?Yeah. It's because the death is happening right in front of you.

[Aoiluna]

I have always had more compassion for animals than people. I dont know if it has something to do with the innocence that animals have compared to what I have experienced with the many wonderful human beings I have come into contact with. People are so skeevy and un-compassionate themselves, and animals are so..simple it seems. I cant help but feel compassion for animals, especially if what they are enduring is caused by humans.

Spiders, ants, flies, roaches, and bugs of the like are the organisms that I havent had problems killing but when I come across a butterfly with a broken wing I cant help to empathize with it. Its weird.

[robin.]

Stop killing bugs, people! Yeah they can bite you, if you touch them with your bare hands (don't do that). Yeah they can sting you, if you swat at them (don't do that).

It's okay to have an irrational fear; we all have them. It's NOT okay to let that irrational and largely unfounded fear take control of our actions so that we harm other beings.

Yes, some bugs are ugly. "Prettiness" shouldn't be the ruler by which we measure their right to live.

[Jgib5328]

Stop killing bugs, people! Yeah they can bite you, if you touch them with your bare hands (don't do that). Yeah they can sting you, if you swat at them (don't do that).

It's okay to have an irrational fear; we all have them. It's NOT okay to let that irrational and largely unfounded fear take control of our actions so that we harm other beings.

Yes, some bugs are ugly. "Prettiness" shouldn't be the ruler by which we measure their right to live.

Bugs are disgusting, and if I ever have to see one, I'm going to kill it. They don't belong around humans, maybe if we keep killing them, then they will create an evolutionary instinct for them to stay out of the sight of humans, which would be mutually beneficial.

[quentin]

A) There are literally billions upon billions of bugs on this planet. They outnumber us mammals by 1,000,000 to 1 (or something like that). Squashing a few bugs here and there is not going to make them go extinct.

B) Bugs aren't evolved enough to develop brains or feelings. I have no moral qualms about killing them. Bugs are automatons of pure instinct that don't even realize that they are "alive".

C) Bugs are dangerous to people. They spread disease. They taint our food by nibbling on it. That's why we spend billions of dollars on pesticides to kill as many bugs as possible.

D) Everyday we kill bugs inadvertantly in dozens of little ways, like stepping on them or breathing in micro-organisms or polluting the air with our cars and gassing the bugs in the air to death. Am I going to feel guilty about the millions of bugs I've killed in my life? Do I look like a Jainist? At least the Jain priests are consistent in their beliefs, walking around wearing filtered masks all the time so they won't accidentally breathe in an insect and sweeping the walkway before them so they won't accidentally step on an insect.

[Tokey41]

I feel more compassion for animals (not bugs in particular) than humans because I deifnitely relate to them more than humans... which is weird when you think about it. They don't fight their natural instincts for survival and neither do I. It's definitely feeling a connection with yourself and the animal... although this particular case is just weird to me with it being a bug and all.

[quentin]

I don't feel any compassion at all for the lesser developed animals. Insects, fish, and reptiles are incapable of higher feelings. They are bionic robots. I do feel compassion for birds and fellow mammals because they are capable of thought and emotions.

[Jgib5328]

I don't feel any compassion at all for the lesser developed animals. Insects, fish, and reptiles are incapable of higher feelings. They are bionic robots. I do feel compassion for birds and fellow mammals because they are capable of thought and emotions.

That's pretty much how I usually feel, but this stupid centipede bothered me for some reason. Oh well, at least it's dead now.

[AgentofGaming]

That's pretty much how I usually feel, but this stupid centipede bothered me for some reason. Oh well, at least it's dead now.

It's nasty cleaning one up but it's the centipede's fault for not leaving back where it came from.

I don't feel any compassion at all for the lesser developed animals. Insects, fish, and reptiles are incapable of higher feelings. They are bionic robots. I do feel compassion for birds and fellow mammals because they are capable of thought and emotions.

I like birds too, at least they know when to avoid humans unlike bees.

[robin.]

A) There are literally billions upon billions of bugs on this planet. They outnumber us mammals by 1,000,000 to 1 (or something like that). Squashing a few bugs here and there is not going to make them go extinct.Of course not.

B) Bugs aren't evolved enough to develop brains or feelings. I have no moral qualms about killing them. Bugs are automatons of pure instinct that don't even realize that they are "alive".Bugs have brains/central nervous systems, adrenaline, and the ability to panic, aka "fight or flight." Also, what happened to some baseline level of respect for all things?

C) Bugs are dangerous to people. They spread disease. They taint our food by nibbling on it. That's why we spend billions of dollars on pesticides to kill as many bugs as possible.We spend billions of dollars on pesticides so that our Red Delicious apples are nice and shiny. If bugs were really that dangerous, no one would buy organic (pesticide-free) food. Now, if I find a deer tick on my dog, it will go down the toilet because they are known to spread disease. That centipede (or other creepy-crawlie) did not pose a similar threat.

D) Everyday we kill bugs inadvertantly in dozens of little ways, like stepping on them or breathing in micro-organisms or polluting the air with our cars and gassing the bugs in the air to death. Am I going to feel guilty about the millions of bugs I've killed in my life? Do I look like a Jainist? At least the Jain priests are consistent in their beliefs, walking around wearing filtered masks all the time so they won't accidentally breathe in an insect and sweeping the walkway before them so they won't accidentally step on an insect.I would never advocate inconveniencing oneself to such an extent. I think that, whenever reasonably possible, we should respect all life forms, even the icky ones.

This isn't meant to be a debate or a judgment, I'm simply expressing the fact that I don't understand the logic behind killing something relatively harmless because it's gross instead of escorting it outside. Feel free to respond, but I think I'll leave it at this so as not to derail the thread more than I already have!