Emotionalism

    Before I get into reasoning, I'll just declare that I don't want to be an emotional person. The fewer emotions I can have, the better. I have no expectation of this happening in my lifetime, but I keep it as a personal goal. For people in mindsets other than the Stoic or perhaps Buddhist (the eastern cousin of Stoicism) way of thinking, this seems ludicrous, dangerous, or perhaps cowardly. I've spent my entire life in a shroud of rubberized feelings bouncing up/down/left/right and mostly in circles. I can't speak for anyone, but I don't see much different in the shared lives of those around me.

    My perception is that we have three states. Good feelings, bad feelings, and no feelings. However, good and bad feelings are in one dimension of existence and no feelings is in another. What I mean is that the good and bad feelings have a special relationship. They play off each other and depend on each other. They form a necessary dichotomy. We misuse impressions to create a bad feeling and when the fog is lifted from our mistake it is transformed into a good feeling. Similarly, we push ourselves to emotional highs regarding the objects of our lives and often come into a crash.

    The no feeling dimension is rejected for the same reason we fear most things, their being foreign. Our proclivity towards understanding puts us at odds with it. I'm hardly an expert, but I feel like there are moments where I can catch a glimpse of what it is like. It doesn't feel all that pleasurable like a state of bliss. It just feels very calm and authentic. I think we can stumble into it at times, but our untamed feelings are too strong to leave us there for long.

    The first problem I have with excess feeling all the time is that I barely get to live my life in the moment because I'm constantly having to fend off these voices trying to persuade me of what to do and what to think. Can't my mind know what's a natural way to live without these constant feelings?