Last week's Torchwood (the third episode, 'Ghost Machine') got me thinking about... seeing the past and the future and empathy and the way people react to things that move them, with which they empathise.
During the course of the episode both Gwen and Owen see glimpses of the past - experience the emotional echoes of traumatic events that happened to strangers decades before - and it affects them both so strongly that it galvanises them into action, into attempting to solve the problem, find the child long since found, save the damsel long dead. To change something that has already happened or at least to make it better.
It became personal. They felt what others had felt before them, felt for those people and so felt compelled to act.
Talking to Jon about it, he said, "The ability to feel what someone else has.... It's the best thing about us. One of the best things about humanity. To feel what someone else does. the pleasure, the hurt. To care that deeply. Not even about someone you know.... About anyone."
Tim's theory is that humanity is naturally altruistic. Personally I think most people are selfish bastards who will happily stab you in the back if it gets them what they want. Empathy? It is the best that people have to offer 'cause it's born of love. But I think it gets dulled early on in most people. I'm not talking about sociopaths. I mean, 'normal' mentally healthy individuals. Most people simply can't care that much. Some people stop caring all together, some people care for one person and one person only, some people care for a small group. People who truly empathise - widely, encompassingly - are very rare and it takes a strong will to survive being so for long. If the world were a different place and most people weren't so selfish, it might be different. But, as the world stands, that kind of broad empathy is a death sentence.
But 'Ghost Machine' implies that if we feel what others feel - truly feel it, really empathise with other people - then we would feel compelled to make a difference for those people. Owen enjoys playing with people, fucking about with them, but experiencing another person's terror and pain affects him more strongly than it does Gwen, who is a sweetheart. And I believe it. If you really care about people, then you do want to make a difference for them, enough to put yourself out. Whether it's one person or many, you try.
I don't think either is a bad thing - though one more person peering down their nose at me and implying that me caring about a wide range of people is in some way a bad or inferior or inconsiderate thing is going to earn that someone a kick up the fucking arse - as long as one can empathise with someone, care about someone. Enough to be willing to make sacrifices, to try and make a difference. Whatever the cost.
During the course of the episode both Gwen and Owen see glimpses of the past - experience the emotional echoes of traumatic events that happened to strangers decades before - and it affects them both so strongly that it galvanises them into action, into attempting to solve the problem, find the child long since found, save the damsel long dead. To change something that has already happened or at least to make it better.
It became personal. They felt what others had felt before them, felt for those people and so felt compelled to act.
Talking to Jon about it, he said, "The ability to feel what someone else has.... It's the best thing about us. One of the best things about humanity. To feel what someone else does. the pleasure, the hurt. To care that deeply. Not even about someone you know.... About anyone."
Tim's theory is that humanity is naturally altruistic. Personally I think most people are selfish bastards who will happily stab you in the back if it gets them what they want. Empathy? It is the best that people have to offer 'cause it's born of love. But I think it gets dulled early on in most people. I'm not talking about sociopaths. I mean, 'normal' mentally healthy individuals. Most people simply can't care that much. Some people stop caring all together, some people care for one person and one person only, some people care for a small group. People who truly empathise - widely, encompassingly - are very rare and it takes a strong will to survive being so for long. If the world were a different place and most people weren't so selfish, it might be different. But, as the world stands, that kind of broad empathy is a death sentence.
But 'Ghost Machine' implies that if we feel what others feel - truly feel it, really empathise with other people - then we would feel compelled to make a difference for those people. Owen enjoys playing with people, fucking about with them, but experiencing another person's terror and pain affects him more strongly than it does Gwen, who is a sweetheart. And I believe it. If you really care about people, then you do want to make a difference for them, enough to put yourself out. Whether it's one person or many, you try.
I don't think either is a bad thing - though one more person peering down their nose at me and implying that me caring about a wide range of people is in some way a bad or inferior or inconsiderate thing is going to earn that someone a kick up the fucking arse - as long as one can empathise with someone, care about someone. Enough to be willing to make sacrifices, to try and make a difference. Whatever the cost.
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and therein lies the difference between me and you.
-The Grumbler
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