This is a blog that was triggered. I react to triggers. I guess we all do. I recently watched a vlog about how the new Doctor Who triggered a negative reaction (whereas of course Doctor Who should trigger lots of positive reaction)! Not long after this I was watching a protest march and wondered "What triggers these people to get off their behinds and actually take action?" Even more bizarre was the recent London naked bike ride which I happened to encounter while strolling through Trafalgar square - what triggers someone to ride naked through London (or perhaps it's mere exhibitionism)? Triggers give rise to good and bad outcomes, but sometimes it's our role to be the trigger. There's a definite relationship between the level of trigger needed and how closely personal the outcome is, before action results. For example, a newspaper article on the Ebola tragedy in Liberia: I feel unease. But then when I get more details - see images - and the unease becomes concern, and concern leads to action (in this case cancelling a trip through west Africa). But even that action is very worrying as I realized I was more emotionally moved by questions of my own exposure to Ebola than I was by the suffering that’s going on. Now that is really disturbing! Yet when I met someone who's young child has substantial medical challenges, suddenly there is a trigger to my empathy, and additional triggers to memories of when my daughter nearly died, and it triggers this blog post. Triggers usually catch us unawares. What triggers my (re-)actions? Apathy, certainly. Inefficient driving, definitely. Rudeness, absolutely. Irrationality almost always! But those are momentary responses (which in no way excuses my reaction). But the sustained reactions, the ones that sit on me persistently, are triggered into overdrive most often when I encounter people who live with a fundamental disconnect between what they say they believe, and how they live. This irks me! Granted, none of us are perfect, but at least we should try! There are two areas where I encounter this trigger more than anywhere else; in "new atheism" where the advocates behave as if its a religion, and with religious people who behave like atheists - especially some Christians. The latter are really disturbing; how can some Christians make the claims they do, and yet live as if they don't? (And then of course there's also climate change denial'ism ... that freaks me out too! I sometimes think there's a special hell for those who, by choice, contribute to the suffering of future generations while denying their culpability.)
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Why?
Probably the best therapy is to express yourself. Why do you think psychiatrists make you lie on the couch and talk, while all they do is murmur "hmmm", "uhuh", or "go on"? Archives
May 2017
|