That's right, folks. Today I am tackling a difficult question: if I could eliminate one human emotion, which would it be?
Well, let's think about this. I'm assuming I'd want to get rid of a negative emotion, so let's discuss.
1. Sadness: as someone who is well-acquainted with depression, you'd think that this might be the first emotion I'd want to toss out the window. Sadness is draining, whether you experience it for a reason or consistently for no reason (yes, that's depression, among other things). However, shockingly enough, this is not an emotion I'd want to get rid of. The main reason why is because I believe that sadness is a key factor in allowing us to be empathetic beings. If we didn't feel sadness and all of the other negative things that go with it, I think it would be much harder for us to be prompted to help others. For example, if I see a homeless man on the street, if his situation didn't make me sad, would I be prompted to buy him lunch? That's a bit of an exaggerated example, but you get the idea. If empathy isn't a good enough reason to experience sadness, then I suppose we can always resort to the old, irritating reasoning that we appreciate the ups of life more after experiencing the downs. If we didn't feel sadness, would we ever experience a sense of catharsis? Would we appreciate art? No, sadness definitely makes the cut in my books.
2. Guilt: again, this is an emotion that I think can actually - in some ways - be a good thing. If we feel guilt over a certain immoral action, we'll probably avoid making that mistake again. Guilt prompts us to reflect on our actions and work on making ourselves better people. I won't deny that guilt can be a bad thing if you feel it irrationally, or if it makes you squirm in self-loathing, but I think that the positive results of guilt may be worth the negative ones. Guilt is a valuable learning tool.
3. Anger: anger, irritation, and frustration are all very annoying. They eat away at you a bit, or can make you do or say things that you may regret. However, I think anger may be healthy in a way as well. Anger can motivate us to right a wrong. Anger can motivate us to succeed. Anger isn't always positive, but sometimes accepting negative situations and using anger as a release can be positive. Anger is not as high up on my list of negative emotions to spare because I hate feeling angry (and I hate how it can lead me to hold eternal grudges), but I can still somewhat admit that it has its positive points.
4. Envy: now we're getting closer to the bottom. Envy is one of those totally non-constructive emotions that can lead a person to act in not-so-great ways. It's a waste of energy, as well. However, the one positive thing that can come from envy is the motivation of self-betterment. I'm not a fan of this emotion, but it still makes the cut for that reason.
5. Doubt: this one is one of my least favourites. When I say doubt, I really mean self-doubt. Self-doubt can ruin things big time and make life unpleasant overall. The one positive thing I can say about doubt is that it keeps people from becoming egomaniacs, though, and that may actually be worse in my books.
And so, without further ado, the winner of the worst and most useless emotion is... embarrassment!
I cannot even express how much I hate this emotion. I think this is the leading cause of self-doubt, and a significant cause of other negative emotions like sadness and anger. I am embarrassed very easily, myself, and what's the point? Embarrassment comes, you hate yourself, you want to run away and hide in a hole.... how on earth is this a helpful emotion? It is absolutely useless! I have yet to see any good come from it. Take it away!
Anyway, if anyone besides Mark or the Russian robots reads this, I would love to hear opinions on what the worst emotion is!
-Laura
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