Sensitive to what - updated 10/21

10/20/2008
I found the research in my previous blog entry particularly interesting because I am easily startled, but I do not identify myself as a conservative, and I don't hold the views that the researchers considered conservative.

Perhaps one reason I don't fit the profile is that I have a high degree of empathy. So I am sensitive to other people, as well as myself. Also, besides being highly sensitive, I am also highly analytical, so I think about my reactions, and whether they are what I think are right, and work at being the kind of person I think I should be. (Certainly far from achieving that goal!) If I am afraid of something I feel it is irrational to be afraid of, I make a point of doing it. Of course, it is rational to be afraid of some things. Because of things that have happened in my own life, causing dark feelings, I can understand others who do not have the same analytical ability to transform their own experiences.

I find this article helps me to understand better people whose views I find repulsive and immoral. I hope I can translate that into a better way of communicating with them. I have to admit, that is not one of strong suits.

10/21/2008
As you can see, I rarely post comments about my personal life. When I do, it's because I think/hope it might be useful to help some people understand some other people.

On the way to work this morning I realized that I might not really be such an exception to the research (which like all such, won't apply all the time, anyway).

"The scientists explained that these political positions were protective of the volunteers' social groups."

I feel part of the group of all humanity, and indeed, of all life. So that affects my views of what is a threat, and who/what I feel protective toward. Since different individuals and different groups have different needs, I am forced to see the world in what I would consider a more balanced way, and see more than one side to many issues. I think this is what I share with other progressives & humanists.

I will admit, it wouldn't bother me if dodder (which I found in my garden once, with its suckers in my flowers) became extinct, although I also don't have a wish for it to become extinct, because I have only ever seen it that once, and I used to hike regularly in the woods.