My apathy and altruism
Note: For now this is just a rant without much substance. Please don’t take it very seriously.
I feel I should clarify a certain internal tension people might observe in me, namely that on one hand, I participate in seemingly altruistic activities, have an interest in altruism, might appear friendly, etc., but that on the other hand, I seem to exhibit certain patterns in temperament of a misanthrope. While I don’t really consider myself either an altruist or a misanthrope, I want to clarify that I don’t think there is any contradiction in being both a misanthrope (in the sense of being apathetic to most humans; not of actively doing harm to them) and an altruist at the same time.
In terms of being a “misanthrope”, I readily admit that I find most people extremely boring, to the point of having difficulty interacting with them. I frequently describe myself as being orthogonal to most people, in the sense that the dot product of our interests is zero. Indeed, there is a lack of coincidence of wants which makes most forms of social interaction painful. Unless contractually expected, it’s not really my duty to help people maintain their ego—or whatever; I’m frank in my criticism of people when they seek it.
My past envy was the result of a distortion of perception; in fact none of the relationships I observe are ones I would rather forsake my current position to be in. What I want does not yet exist in this world.
I suppose I should clarify that I don’t purposely act coldly toward people, or be belligerent, and so forth. In fact, I like to consider myself to be somewhere between “neutral” and “friendly” most of the time.
This generally works out because I don’t expect anything from others either, so they generally leave me alone.
Keeping in mind all of the above,
- also talk about animals & people’s ability to empathize with them
http://www.critical-theory.com/professor-of-the-year-if-you-dont-give-me-any-of-your-shitty-papers-you-get-an-a/
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