Annoying guilt
Have you ever reflected over the vast amount of spontaneous thoughts of nonsense popping up in your head every day? They can be evoked by just about anything; a person in front of you in a queue saying something you think is silly (you think: what a stupid person), a cute woman walking past you (you think: what a nice rack, didn't she just check me out?), or an unfriendly salesperson in a store snapping at you (you think: what a bastard / bitch, I will never shop here again). Many spontaneous thoughts are positive and encouraging, like "didn't he / she just check me out?", and some are negative "what a stupid fool I am". Most of the time you don't even notice them, just accept them unconsciously for facts, and move on with other thoughts. But sometimes you, or at least me, get a feeling of guilt after having thought something negative about someone else. I am then often struck by the follow-up feeling: who do I think I am judging her / him, not like I am so much better! Guilt is really my "thing", I can feel it for just about anything. But I have definitely improved, mainly due to my own hard work in context of my cognitive psychologist-meetings. I wonder, although being rather sure about the answer, if others are just like me, thinking these thoughts. Are you?
You need examples to understand my question? Here are three collected yesterday and today:
1. I worked out on the stairs machine, and on the machine in front of me was a man that made me annoyed. He smelled really bad, of old reheated sweat, had intense blond curly back / shoulder hair growth. Will I have to stare at this back hair and breathe this icky air for 45 minutes? That was enough for me to get annoyed, and subsequently being struck by a feeling of guilt for my being annoyed.
2. In the changing room getting ready for my yoga class my eyes / brain registered lower back hair growth on a woman as well. I thought: blurk! And then => guilt.
3. Today on the bus from Malmoe to Lund, I sat behind a very disturbing girl. Everything about her annoyed me, but it all started with a part of a statement she made "most PhD students are women, but still most men are professors, the higher up in the hierarchy you get, the more men you find". This is true, but there are more reasons for men having these higher positions in the academic world than female supression, i.e. that in the group of people with very long experience and education that are on these posts, there are more men than women. Just like why more men get the Nobel Prize for instance, the time usually needed for producing something worth this award, most often forces you to be in your late 70s, and then, you will find more male scientists than female. This will change, but there is obviously a delay. But it was more about her that made me annoyed. She was a typical militant feminist (ready for my prejudice?), long brunette hair that is cared for only with a coloured scrunchy towards your lower neck, glasses, and a disturbing accent, and aggressive tone in the voice. Anyone "militant" I instantly get a spontaneous negative feeling about, being militant is not a good way to change the world / situtations that disturb you. She was annoying, I promise! You would have felt it too! I think. She just didn't seem credible, just gave one the feeling of having these opinions because she knows they are the right opinions to have and express to "be" this kind of person that she wanted to be, to belong to a group she wanted to belong to. But it didn't feel personal or true, just like she was repeating something she had heard somewhere, trying to get away with it being your "own" thought. And that really annoys me! When people aren't thinking for themselves, only repeating what has been said so many times previously.
And after getting annoyed by her comments, I again felt guilt. A little...
2 Comments:
That lady on the bus was annoying. Don't feel any guilt for thinking that. Cute cat woke me up this morning, playing with a paper bag, but then he calmed down. When I left for work he was laying purring on the bathroom carpet. Puss!
/Eeyore
Nawwh,
How lovely, getting reports on cute cat through my blog! Brilliant! Will meet you and cute cat tonight again!
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