Emotion vs. No Emotion

[Ginkgo]

Is it better to be emotionally bankrupt or emotionally volatile?

 

[Moiety]

What's the goal here? Happiness? Keeping yourself amused?

 

[kiddykat]

Neither?

Volatile implies lack of personal control over one's own life.

Emotional emptiness implies an empty void, a state of apathy, no response, which is also an emotion that's out of control, but a very dull one, like a slow death. Volatile emotions are a quicker way of dying.

If I could choose, I'd choose content. It's neither volatile or empty, and it's better than just a so-so, happy medium.

 

[TheGolfCourse]

What's the goal here? Happiness? Keeping yourself amused?

Yeah I agree, the choices are such that by themselves I have a hard time answering that question. I would need something to direct emotional volatility/lack of emotion towards. Giving advice, business ventures, experimenting with sandwiches, BBQ, etc.

Personally I think the benefits of having emotions outweigh the negative things that come with it.

 

[erm]

Is it better to be emotionally bankrupt or emotionally volatile?

So in one state your mood shifts up and down, averaging at zero, in the other you are always at zero?

If so, both are pretty neutral to me, I can't decide between them. Perhaps I would flip a coin.

Otherwise I'd take whichever has the higher average.

 

[wank]

Is it better to be emotionally bankrupt or emotionally volatile?

I parse this as;

Is it better to be in a state that outputs:
a constant insolvent quantity of emotion for ensues nonparameter.
Or
an inconstant/fickle/mercurial quantity of emotion for ensues nonparameter.

The second choice begets more options, even the possibility partaking in the first(which I wonder if such could nullify the second choice[begets meta emotional discourse on the inseparable nature of mutiplicity of people as regarding their relations to one another]).

The first choice seems to negate the possibility.

The second at least has a higher chance.

Or it could even be parsed as:
Is it positive to be negative regarding nonparameter, or [Ad libitum here] about nonparameter?(I'm quite sure the original poster would have you fill in the Ad lib.[The second being totally the best choice, incomparable to the first])

 

[Mole]

Is it better to be emotionally bankrupt or emotionally volatile?

I am emotionally and intellectually volatile and I enjoy it when I am in company that allows me to be volatile. But when I am in company that disallows volatility, I throttle right back.

So you might say I have learnt to be visible in good company and invisible in bad company.

But interestingly I have learnt not to let myself be controlled in bad company. This is not so hard for me to do. For usually bad company wants to control me and use tried and true techniques of control, such as MBTI.

A prime example was when I was being mugged. The mugger tried to control me by engaging me in physical violence and keeping me quiet. So I didn't fight back rather I shouted and kept on shouting at the top of my voice. This put the mugger off their stride and I made my escape.

And there is nothing I like more than being able to flow freely in good company.

And when I flow freely, it encourages the other to be spontaneous as well. And their spontaneity reveals their character, good or bad.

So rather than saying I am volatile, which is a pejorative word, perhaps I should say, I am spontaneous.

And interestingly I am also described with another pejorative word, over-excitable (OE). But I prefer to describe myself with the positive words, high responsiveness.

And although my high responsiveness does disturb the brittle control of some, I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Mole]

Is it better to be emotionally bankrupt or emotionally volatile?

Also it is unusual for an introverted person like myself to be spontaneous. But what I have done is to discover spontaneity bubbling up inside myself and where appropriate, share it with those around me.

To my surprise this works quite well. Possibly because my spontaneity is good humoured and humorous.

And I almost always have my spontaneity available to me. Although I do notice that it is often at a tangent to the context I am in.

So, as here, I am sometimes asked to explain myself. I do find this irksome - its like being asked to explain a joke. So rather stopping my flow with explanations, I just let it be known it was a bad joke and not worth repeating. And often they will forget why they were asking.

But when they ask me for an explanation, I take it as a warning, and throttle right back and listen to them. And I find it quite relaxing to throttle back and listen. And people love you to listen to them.

And when I find someone with high responsiveness, we flow together like water.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Is it better to be emotionally bankrupt or emotionally volatile?

In the short-term it is probably better to be bankrupt because it will have less chaotic effect on decision making. For the long-term I think it is more difficult to recover from emotional bankruptcy than volatility because it brings with it no motivation to overcome it.

 

[JocktheMotie]

Bankrupt. You can't miss what you don't have.

 

[Salt n' pepper]

Bankrupt.

 

[Fluffywolf]

Emotionally volatile.

Emotional bankrupcy brings along a whole array of scary thoughts. Better to care too much than not care at all.

 

[murkrow]

Emotionally volatile.

Emotional bankrupcy brings along a whole array of scary thoughts. Better to care too much than not care at all.

Whether or not emotional bankrupcy results in scary thoughts is unimportant, the thinker will have no fear.

 

[Moiety]

Whether or not emotional bankrupcy results in scary thoughts is unimportant, the thinker will have no fear.

True, and it just makes you wonder how you could be human even without emotions. Fear is the most basic, present in the mind of even the most desensitized fellows in some form or another.

 

[Nyx]

neither, both are the folly of ignorant men

 

[Ginkgo]

neither, both are the folly of ignorant men

How exactly does ignorance influence the departure or manifestation of emotion? These things may correlate, but they are independent as far as I can tell.

For instance, a perfectly knowledgeable man might be stoic or emotional. Correlation does not equal causation.

 

[Unkindloving]

I think i've already roamed the realms of emotionally volatile. I really wouldn't want it any other way.
This isn't Equilibrium or Terminator and our lack of mechanical processing and degree of emotion makes us human. Anyone who would prefer to sacrifice that should take a supplement to suppress their humanity and get their insides swapped out for some robotics.
I definitely prefer feeling like a human.

 

[Kra]

This isn't Equilibrium or Terminator and our lack of mechanical processing and degree of emotion makes us human. Anyone who would prefer to sacrifice that should take a supplement to suppress their humanity and get their insides swapped out for some robotics.

One question. Are those "over the counter" supplements or prescription?

If you truly had no emotion, you would not be bothered by your lack of humanity. You would not desire happiness, and you would not fear unhappiness. Sounds like a fair deal to me when I think about it.

 

[Unkindloving]

One question. Are those "over the counter" supplements or prescription?

If you truly had no emotion, you would not be bothered by your lack of humanity. You would not desire happiness, and you would not fear unhappiness. Sounds like a fair deal to me when I think about it.

Prescription.
What would be the programming then? What would make anyone without emotion inclined to do anything?
I see it as falling deeply into monotony and, while the individual wouldn't have any feeling toward it, i wouldn't sacrifice emotions to be that way.
It poses a further debate of.. dropping emotions after having them or not having emotions from the very start.
Then it makes me wonder about emotionless people striving for efficiency. How would they handle people they view as inefficient, especially if they aren't bothered by a lack of humanity?

Imo, there's a lot it stirs up... and the imagery is fantastic if you think of humanity starting off that way.