#witnessing

Becoming aware of the intense suffering of billions of animals, and of our own participation in that suffering, can bring up painful emotions: sorrow and grief for the animals; anger at the injustice and deception of the system; despair at the enormity of the problem; fear that trusted authorities and institutions are, in fact, untrustworthy; and guilt for having contributed to the problem. Bearing witness means choosing to suffer. Indeed, empathy is literally 'feeling with.' Choosing to suffer is particularly difficult in a culture that is addicted to comfort--a culture that teaches that pain should be avoided whenever possible and that ignorance is bliss. We can reduce our resistance to witnessing by valuing authenticity over personal pleasure, and integration over ignorance. ↗

— Melanie Joy

#suffering #witnessing #anger

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting. ↗

— George Orwell

#bound #disregard #fair #fair play #hatred

I seriously doubt I would ever have written the first story had I not been a lawyer. I never dreamed of being a writer. I wrote only after witnessing a trial. ↗

— John Grisham

#been #being #doubt #dreamed #ever

I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive. It's horrifying. ↗

— Rachel Corrie

#destruction #feel #horrifying #i #i feel

Well, when I was a kid, if my father was witnessing something that he thought was particularly outrageous or he was looking at some sort of a question that he thought lacked proper definition, he would say, Well, at least Jesse James had the honor to wear a mask. ↗

— Richard Neal

#father #had #honor #i #james

What we are witnessing now is a clash of civilisations, not just between states but within them. ↗

— Pim Fortuyn

#civilisations #clash #just #now #states

One of the greatest gifts my father gave me - unintentionally - was witnessing the courage with which he bore adversity. We had a bit of a rollercoaster life with some really challenging financial periods. He was always unshaken, completely tranquil, the same ebullient, laughing, jovial man. ↗

— Ben Okri

#always #bit #bore #challenging #completely

"It worked." (said after witnessing the first atomic detonation). ↗

— J. Robert Oppenheimer

#atomic #first #said #witnessing #worked

I think that witnessing ecological problems visible from space is one of the new and essential roles of astronauts. ↗

— Philippe Perrin

#ecological #essential #i #i think #new