More bad news, it just never cedes to stop, great..
Regarding sympathy (and i like how you didn't try to mask it, but how you said your thoughts)
Yes and no. Let's just assume for the sake of analogy, i wouldn't have gone through hell.
(and as i said, just the tip of the iceberg i told you about, the rest.. am not looking for attention)
So if in consequence i would perceive the world more positively, be all nice and never say what i actually think, honeydew everything and every one,
be more positive and outgoing (which is much easier when you're unscathed), the level of empathy i would get back (again, in a hypothetical scenario)
Would be just like with every other nice and sweet person. What people lack is the judgement and understandment how some can't be like that,
even if they wanted to, even if inside, they are the sweetest person there can be. Let's not forget, it's also a coping- and selfdefense mechanism.
But they see someone antagonistic and they paint a picture in their heads, as he must be the enemy.
That's why it's even harder for anyone who been through very tough times to make their peace, you don't just fight those demons,
no you also fight all those who deliberately make it harder for you, just because they don't like you for your way of coping.
If a baby cries, pretty much every one would feel an empathy and try and ease the crying. If the baby is beyond the crying,
feeling angry, kicking and screaming, it would be different, even though you still feel you gotta help.
I came to accept that's apparently how the World works.
But i can't tell you, THAT can make the broken to villains, to become monsters.
And it takes a lot of mental strength not to succumb to the constantly twisting gut,
the rage that's fed from the pain and disappointment (like the black hole being fed).
I don't know if you understand what i'm trying to say, but i feel all that, and yet i wouldn't fall victim to my own hatred.
But this is how some are driven into madness, or into a husk without emotional foundations, with no empathy.
It's not their free will to turn into that, but are driven towards it.
Concerning me, i can tell you why i'm safe from falling into that pit.
It is my creative output, my ideas, my music. And the fact i, for half my life, wanted to write a scifi book about this kind of mindset.
Though only now i really know how someone like that really ticks. My art keeps me safe, as absurd as that sounds.
One thing that i often fail to understand though, people say they adore talent, but in reality all they care for is the illusion,
it's easier to fall for an illusion that is being fed to them than to actually use their own spoons and try the pudding.
(referring to an english saying "The proof of the pudding is in the eating").
That's why merchandising and Pop-culture work so perfectly on us.
That has little to do with free will. Pop Culture, thinking of it, is actually a great example for the lack of free will.
You're being fed a product, be it a song that's played on the radio over and over.
(it's proven people are more likely to buy, when they are constantly being fed with it, it's actually common practice in the music industry to make use of this human weakness)
"But when you say, hey i spent two years on this song, made it all by myself" they perceive it much differently than they would had they "discovered" it through the
regular MusicIndustry tools. Often the image is what sells the artist, not the music at first.
hm, tried to keep it short actually.
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- Political opression
- Perception
- social engineering
- past decisions
- Wealth, or the lack of
- Family ties
- Time constraints, conflicting preemptive decisions
- Emotions, love, anger, sympathy
- Skill, education
- Age
- environmental influences (i don't mean the weather by that)
- "fate"
- nationality