Why is it

[hummingwolf]

that sometimes we can look at a situation objectively and see why a certain course of action would be a Really Incredibly Bad Idea, yet still want to pursue that course anyway? You can enumerate all the obvious ways in which it would damage you or someone you love, you can trace in your mind's eye the trajectory of each fragment of the metaphorical bullet you want to shoot out and see each metaphorical organ that would be punctured; and still you want to carry out the Really Incredibly Bad Idea, consequences be damned. Why is that? It's so clearly contra-survival, you wouldn't think the propensity to be so foolish would survive in the species after all these countless generations. What is up with that?

Oh, maybe it's just me. Maybe nobody else out there ever gets these deep irrepressible longings for something they know is bad for them.

::briefly ponders world history::

Nope, not just me.

Comments

[hai-kah-uhk.livejournal.com]

I dunno. Is that like self-sabotage? I'm really good at self-sabotage, especially when my life is going well... I think I have the urge to balance the good with the bad by turning the good bad too.

Other than that, I think my survival instinct (or my Yankee frugality) prevents me from doing anything significantly stupid. :o\

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Self-sabotage is like it, yes. Lots of people are uncomfortable with being *very* happy, so they tend to do things which will bring them back down to their customary level of mediocrity/misery/okay-but-not-greatness/whatever. Self-sabotage usually isn't too damaging to your survival as a gene-carrier--might even promote survival sometimes, if you'd have a dangerously high level of certain hormones otherwise. I was thinking more about compelling urges to do something truly, magnificently self-destructive. I can avoid acting out on those urges usually, but why the heck won't they go away? I just don't geddit.

[hai-kah-uhk.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Maybe to shock some sense into you? Kind of like your subconscious saying, "Oh, you want something to angst and whine about? i'll GIVE you something to angst and whine about, and just remember that you asked for it!"

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

oh no, not just you. that's what denial is for -- we can close our eyes to the ramifications of the act we are so hot to commit, and then when the havoc is wreaked and we look around at the destruction, we can say, but i didn't know it would turn out like this! that's my M.O. anyway. :(

next week, if the weather ever gets better, would you like to go to lunch? (i don't mean to be pushy.)

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Well, I see why the urges might last if you've got a good strong sense of denial working. What I don't get is why the urges might last even when you (or I) know beforehand how stupid you're being.

And I would love to have lunch with you sometime! We'll see what the weather does next week.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

good! i'll look forward to that. :)

as for the urges, i think what i do is, when i SEE what repercussions might be, i choose to ignore them, which can be functionally a lot like denial (which i take to be more semi-conscious). or in one inglorious case, i saw what might happen and went ahead, dancing in the dragon's jaws... till the dragon ate me with a crunch. anyway... we can talk about that too.

definitely not just you

[traceyb.livejournal.com]

one day after a particular frazzling interaction with a co-worker, I looked out the large window facing a lake filled with sail boats and thought "I can just walk out of here. I don't have to listen to her babbling at me. I can just walk out...far far away" But then I thought of "how will I pick up from that point." It would have just been way too difficult.

The ones that I go with are often ones that give me fun and harms no one (not even myself). I think they are the guilty pleasures that we've been trained that we really don't need.

Have you decided which road to take for yourself in this instance?


Tracey

Re: definitely not just you

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Oh I love the so-called "guilty pleasures." As a rule, I refuse to feel guilty about 'em.

By "stupid" I didn't mean the kinds of things that other people might look down on us for--it's not stupid to ignore public opinion when public opinion is irrelevant. I was thinking more of the things which one knows are damaging, but one really really wants to do anyway.

I don't know what I'm going to do. Probably not anything amazingly stupid, though it may not be safe to place your bets just yet.

[sophy.livejournal.com]

"Dont press the big red button."

"Why?"

"Just don't. It would be bad. Very bad."

*eyes the red button*

"I didn't even notice the button before, but now I want to press it."

"Why?"

"Because it looks like fun."

"But it would be BAD."

"I know. But just look at it - waiting to be pressed...."

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Heh. That fits pretty well, yep.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

It's that darn yoomun brain, I tell you. Can't rely on it. It's more clever than it is wise. A bad combination!

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

More clever than it is wise. How the heck did that happen?!

(And what about those of us who are neither wise nor clever?)