Passion (from the Ancient Greek verb πάσχω (paskho) meaning to suffer or to endure) is a term applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something.
The term is also often applied to a lively or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, or activity or love - to a feeling of unusual excitement, enthusiasm or compelling emotion, a positive affinity or love, towards a subject, idea, person, or object.
ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passion_%28emotion%29
This diary was not planned, but events in a group that I belong to inspired me to write it. I have read many rightous rants and action diaries and seen disagreements, depression and flares ups on DK. But, that’s why I come here. I have found more passion on DK than I have found in my whole life of interaction with people. Only people with passion, people who care, have emotional attachments to their causes that make them stand up for their beliefs, fight for them, and sometimes have falling outs over them.
It is not easy to be a passionate person in a world that tries hard to stifle dissent and emotion to keep control over the masses. It is ingrained in us from the day we are born to not act out, get emotional or speak up when you see inequality or unfairness in life. People with passion are made to feel like there is something inherently wrong with them, and they need to learn how to control themselves. DK is full of people who ignored or could not change to meet these stringent, shackling requirements that society tries to strangle us with. It would be easier if we could, on ourselves and the powers that be. We are the people that everyone fears. Why? Because we care. Because we speak up. Because we don’t back down in the face of pressure. Passionate people are the greatest threat to the status quo.
'A sense of self-mastery...has been praised as a virtue since Plato's day'; but nonetheless it is a fact of everyday life that 'passions overwhelm reason time and again. This given of human nature arises from the basic architecture of mental life...the basic neural circuitry of emotion'[1]. Looking at a typical mental conflict, Plato considered that ' the forbidding principle is derived from reason, and that which bids and attracts proceeds from passion...the irrational or appetitive'[2]; and he saw the role of education as using 'the united influence of music and gymnastic [to] bring them into accord, nerving and sustaining the reason with noble words and lessons, and moderating and soothing and civilizing the wildness of passion by harmony and rhythm.
In his wake, Stoics like Epitectus emphasised that 'the most important and especially pressing field of study is that which has to do with the stronger emotions...sorrows, lamentations, envies...passions which make it impossible for us even to listen to reason'.
The prevailing thought in history has been to stamp out, rid people of passion. Only reason could be trusted, not emotions, they needed to be tamed. Now the research shows that finding a balance between reason and emotion is what should be sought
The Stoic tradition still lay behind Hamlet's plea to 'Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core'[5], or Erasmus's lament that 'Jupiter has bestowed far more passion than reason - you could calculate the ratio as 24 to one'[6]. It was only with the Romantic movement that a valorisation of passion over reason took hold in the Western tradition: 'the more Passion there is, the better the Poetry'[7].
The recent concerns of Emotional intelligence have been to find a synthesis of the two forces - something that 'turns the old understanding of the tension between reason and feeling on its head: it is not that we want to do away with emotion and put reason in its place, as Erasmus had it, but instead find the intelligent balance of the two'[8]
Antonio Damasio studied what ensued when something 'severed ties between the lower centres of the emotional brain...and the thinking abilities of the neocortex'[9]. He found that while 'emotions and feelings can cause havoc in the processes of reasoning...the absence of emotion and feeling is no less damaging'[10]; was led to 'the counter-intuitive position that feelings are typically indispensable for rational decisions'[11]. The passions, he concluded, 'have a say on how the rest of the brain and cognition go about their business. Their influence is immense...[providing] a frame of reference' - as opposed to 'Descartes' error...the Cartesian idea of a disembodied mind'[12].
Damasio’s studies showed that reason without emotion is also damaging. IMO reason without emotion is inherently cold, dismissive and calculating.
In Margaret Drabble's The Realms of Gold, the hero flies hundreds of miles to reunite with the heroine, only to miss her by 24 hours - leaving the onlookers 'wondering what grand passion could have brought him so far...a quixotic look about him, a look of harassed desperation'[17]. When the couple do finally reunite, however, the heroine is less than impressed. '"If you ask me, it was a very childish gesture. You're not twenty-one now, you know". "No, I know. It was my last fling"'
This is a perfect example at how passion is made to seem childish, and that the passionate person should simply grow up and get over it. The would be lover is not admired for his impulsive display.
There was a recent diary on DK about why Americans don’t revolt. I submit it is because passion has been replaced by materialism, reason, greed and laziness. Objects, self-interest and money have supplanted true passion. Passion requires an immense amount of energy.
The world is full of people without passion. They don’t cry when there is sadness. They don’t work when there is good cause. They turn their backs when there is need or even genocide. They walk away when love demands emotional commitment. To show hurt, anger, sadness or admiration would be weakness. They scorn and look down on such emotions. These are the people who wage war and call civilian deaths collateral damage. In business they call theft, a job well done. In relationships they see emotion and involvement as hard, unrewarding work.
Passionate people create poetry, art, music and literature. They make you feel alive when you are around them. They inspire others. They know how to enjoy beauty and life. They live their lives fully involved, not holding back. They give.
~ Passion is universal humanity. Without it religion, history, romance and art would be useless. ~
HonorÈ de Balzac
~ If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you. ~
T. Alan Armstrong
~ A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means ~
William Hazlitt
~ Passion is the genesis of genius. ~
Anthony Robbins
http://www.finestquotes.com/select_quote-category-Passion-page-0.htm#ixzz1Hp0uTOKl
Not only are people at DK passionate, they are also intelligent, Erasumus’ ideal of balance between reason, intelligence and passion. Complete people. What the world needs is more passion, not less. So, please, don’t change. Keep up the rants, Keep up the fight for what is right. Passionate people cannot simply stop or change how they feel. It is not easy or simple for them to disconnect the mind and emotions, for many (like myself and so many here) it is impossible. I rejoice at your passion. I admire you. I’m glad to know you.