Explore the World's Best Ideas
Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.
We Are Getting Too Thin-Skinned
It's quite easy to offend someone these days.
In the age of social media, we get bombarded with crude language, opinions we don't like, and stuff that's downright mean. That's probably why we see an increase in language policing and censorship. To some extent, this can be a good thing, for example, to protect minors.
But when it's getting too far we can ask ourselves: aren't we getting too thin-skinned?
From a Stoic point of view, we're not offended by what we deem offensive, but by our choice to be offended.
62
422 reads
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger, one of the great Stoic philosophers, was concerned with the nature of insults and being offended.
Seneca criticized his friend Serenus for wishing that people, in general, shouldn't offend each other. According to Seneca, this is completely unrealistic and not in our control. Instead, we should aim for not to being offended, which is in our control.
62
421 reads
1. Don't Demand The World To Be Nice
We cannot expect people to be nice to us all the time, because they aren't. Humans possess the full range of emotions, desires, and mindstates: from angry, to happy, from compassionate to sadistic.
There are as many opinions as there are people, including opinions we don't like. Resiting this is a recipe for disappointment and will lead us to get offended all the time by what's simply a product of nature.
This doesn't mean we should put up with people treating us badly. We can set boundaries, or limit our interactions with people that don't respect us.
74
307 reads
2. Accept The Truth, Reject Nonsense
If someone offends you, ask yourself if the thing that you feel offended by is truth or nonsense.
If it's truth, why be offended by truth?
If it's nonsense, why be offended by nonsense? If someone throws nonsense at us, isn't the person that does so is the one who should feel ashamed instead of us?
77
317 reads
Someone has made a joke about the baldness of my head, the weakness of my eyes, the thinness of my legs, the shortness of my stature; what insult is there telling me that which everyone sees?
LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA
74
310 reads
3. Contemplate Your Ego
When we are insulted our ego is attacked. This is a consequence of the story we tell ourselves, about ourselves and how the world should be.
When something conflicts our story, it could lead to feeling offended. We should ask ourselves then:
- "Why are we getting offended?",
- "What's the root of this?",
- "Is it because of something that happened in the past?",
- "Is it because of an ideology?",
- "Is it because I've been culturally conditioned to be offended by this?"
Our own faculty should be our own responsiblity.
76
315 reads
You are expressing a wish that the whole human race were inoffensive, which may hardly be; moreover, those who would gain by such wrongs not being done are those who would do them, not he who could not suffer from them even if they were done
LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA
59
262 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Purvankit khadatkar's ideas are part of this journey:
Learn more about personaldevelopment with this collection
Understanding the importance of decision-making
Identifying biases that affect decision-making
Analyzing the potential outcomes of a decision
Related collections
Similar ideas
6 ideas
Why Stopping Negative Thoughts Is Important
Growth Mindset
5 ideas
11 ideas
Memes: Art of The Internet Age
Pursuit of Wonder
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates