emotional (dis)investment
No one wants to take the risk of caring deeply.
Heather Havrilesky • The Rise of Emotional Divestment
Caring is an independent primary variable . You have to care first before agreeing or disagreeing can mean anything. And to do that you have to have a surplus capacity to care beyond caring about yourself, by working the “caring muscle.”
Venkatesh Rao • Venkatesh Rao on Substack
“You have to love life before you can care about anything,” she writes. “One must be enamored with existence and occasionally even enchanted in the face of it,” she adds, “in order to be capable of donating some of one’s scarce mortal resources to the service of others.”
L. M. Sacasas • If Your World Is Not Enchanted, You're Not Paying Attention
This state of affairs goes beyond compassion fatigue. Our around-the-clock overexposure to global human suffering, our daily feed of what we once considered catastrophic events — political, ecological, cultural — when combined with diminished attention spans, smaller and smaller chunks of content, and baked-in cross-platform imperatives to remain
... See moreHeather Havrilesky • The Rise of Emotional Divestment
widespread, insidious shifts in how we experience each other face to face, not just in our most intimate relationships but also in our communities and public spaces
Heather Havrilesky • The Rise of Emotional Divestment
The problem is not one of caring. Even the people with whom I vehemently disagree probably care. I concede that. The problem is what they care about more and how little it matters how much the rest of us care.
Tressie McMillan Cottom • Caring is all we seem able to do
Our around-the-clock overexposure to global human suffering, our daily feed of what we once considered catastrophic events — political, ecological, cultural — when combined with diminished attention spans, smaller and smaller chunks of content, and baked-in cross-platform imperatives to remain emotionally removed from any given person, place, or... See more
Heather Havrilesky • The Rise of Emotional Divestment
Nevertheless, we need to keep showing our vulnerable hearts to each other. The stakes are enormous. We need more chances to connect and bond with each other in public. We need reminders that total control and complete divestment from others isn’t possible and it certainly isn’t desirable. We need to learn how to forgive each other and reassure each
... See moreHeather Havrilesky • The Rise of Emotional Divestment
The problem is, of course, that you cannot simply decide to care about something. If you do not care about something, your will cannot simply establish a caring relationship to that thing. It is rather a question of being open to possibilities of caring