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Too Much Love will KILL YOU

2009-07-07 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Philosophy & meaning · reflection essay

Hank argues that we cannot love everyone the way we love those close to us; alongside love we need compassion, a rational caring for the whole world that lets us help without guilt or crushing weight.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting; a Nerdfighter's message; Hank feels bad about tragedies or bad for not feeling bad

  • ★★★ Prompted by a Nerdfighter's YouTube message, Hank says he mostly reacts to tragedies by feeling bad or feeling bad for not feeling bad, and this helps no one. (hedged) — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Aside: Hank is the most important person to himself; everyone overvalues themselves

  • ★ Hank says he is the most important person to himself, insisting he is not kidding: he has only seen the world from his own view; everyone overvalues themselves. (playful) — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Feeling obliged to care; the one kind of caring we know (love) cannot extend to everyone

  • ★★★ Hank says that when tragedies happen we feel obliged to care and assume the only way to care is the way we care for spouses, cats, kids and dads. (hedged) — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ Hank says we cannot have that loving kind of caring for everyone; he jokes that caring for all cats like his own would keep him in bed. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — Sad-cats aside; a second kind of caring, compassion, that is not love

  • ★★★ Hank names a second important kind of caring that is not love, calling it compassion for lack of a better word, which we can have for everyone without love's crushing weight. — 00:01:27

00:02:11 — Obligation to have both love and compassion; everything we do radiates through a connected world

  • ★★★ Hank says we have an obligation to have both love and compassion; compassion recognises that people we don't know love people we don't know. — 00:02:11
  • ★★ Hank describes compassion as a logical, brain-based, world-saving caring that, though it lacks love's fire, is powerful. — 00:02:11 > «It's a logical, realistic, brain-based, world-saving kind of caring.»
  • ★★ Hank says everything we do radiates through the world: we are connected to each other and to the whole planet, and must think about that. — 00:02:40
  • ★★ Hank says we need not feel every tree cut down as if our cat died; love and compassion overlap but should not be confused. — 00:02:40
  • ★★★ Hank says recognising the world is screwed up need not mean feeling its crushing weight; there are fun and cool ways to help fix it. — 00:02:40

00:03:10 — Fun ways to fix the world: vote Chewbacca Solo 2012; sign-off

  • ★ Hank jokes that one fun way to fix the world is to vote Chewbacca and Solo in 2012. (joke) (hedged) — 00:03:10

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