Everyday, we are faced with the constant presence of guilt in our lives. We walk down the street only to get bombarded with beggers or big issue sales, at home we are faced with sick animals and children advertised on tv, we aquire guilt with what we do, how we bring our children up, are we doing it right, if we work are we selfish?etc, absoloutly everything is surrounded by guilt.
The preasure of guilt is unavoidable, not only because it is in our faces all the time but as it is built into our systems. And why do we feel guilt? maybe because we are aware of what we have and others don't?That's certainly what the companies are playing on when they show images of abused children/pets, conveying the question of "what if this was your child/pet" Day to day we view it almost subconsciencely, yet when we are face with children in need, red nose day etc, the campaign for money and 'support' is hyped up so there is no getting away from it!!
Parents suffer greatly in the battle of guilt, should i work and leave my child or not work and give them a lower standard of living? should i feed them this or is it bad for them? With teenagers, if you give them freedom, you look like you don't care, but if you don't your being selfish!
If you drive a car, your killing the planet, if you smoke your killing the planet and yourself and leaving loved ones stranded on their own as you are selfish, yet again making you feel guilty.
Everything we do there is an element of guilt present. Although we have come to live with it, it is still there, dominating the choices that we make and the lives we lead!!
Hi, very good point you've made here. Until I read this I wasn't even aware of how much guilt is forced onto us on a daily basis. It's not fair really because we are made to feel bad when we are not actually being bad. NOt giving to charity, for example, doesn't make you a bad person.
ReplyDeleteThe actual definition of guilt is, 'having committed an offense.' It is not an offense to pass by a beggar on the street without giving change but still we feel this collection of emotions that we label as guilt.
Taking it another step further, what else do we punish ourselves with guilt for? Sometimes I feel 'bad' and 'guilty' for eating chocolate, and now I think about it, this is absolutely ridiculous. It is not an offence to eat chocolate, so why do we make ourselves feel so wrong?
Thank you for this blog, I'm going to keep a check on my emotions now and make sure I don't slip into anymore unecessary habits of quilty feelings :)
The aspect that i find difficult to comprehend is that do we make ourselves feel guilty or do the media force us to.
ReplyDeleteFor example, we work hard all year to afford a holiday somewhere hot and sunny, yet we are constantly told that we are killing the planet and our decendants will all die if we do!! clearly taking the relaxing break we had planned and transforming it into yet another guilt trip!!this is the same as the polution we cause from driving our cars, bigger engine, bigger effect on global warming!!
You pointed out how you feel guilty for eating chocoloate, is this because we are constantly TOLD that it is unhealthy and is making you fat etc?taking the enjoyment out of a treat!
I feel that we punish ourselves as this is what we are surrounded with in the media everyday, negative feedback due to the way we live our lives, which allows them to play on our consciences. Oh what we'd give for just 1 guilt free day!!