The famous British playwright William Shakespeare once said that the eyes are the window to the soul; one may think that he simply used the quote as a figure of speech, but scientists from Sweden’s Orebro University have backed up the claim, proving that Shakespeare’s statement was not just one born from an imaginative mind.
Indeed, eyes can be used to figure out whether a person is impulsive, warmhearted, trustworthy, and the like. Since then, the human race has breezed through and stumbled upon swirls of varying emotions. From the current standpoint of society, and even the world, most people have the freedom to express their emotions, emotions that everyone is all too familiar with and are too innumerable to count. What if, one day, emotions simply died away? Flushed out by the currents of bleakness and emptiness, the human race will end up being stripped of the major characteristic separating them from other creatures, and that is the ability to feel and express their emotions coherently.
Close to home
These days, it is uncommon to see people without their smartphones on hand. To some, winning on Clash of Clans or leveling up on Candy Crush is far more important than human interaction. While people are usually charged with energy while playing these high octane games, they are stoic when it comes to the dining table, where each individual goes through the methodical job of eating and playing at the same time. No words are uttered from the beginning until the end of the meal.
The death of emotions cannot be more palpably felt through Mitch Albom’s newest release, The Timekeeper. Victor Delamonte, the protagonist tycoon who wanted to be resurrected after death through cryonics, pierced through the veil of the future with the help of Father Time, and did not like what he saw there. Dor, Father Time, enabled Victor to realize that his selfish desire of life preservation would defeat the purpose of cryonics, for the people of the future preferred to watch Victor’s emotions play along like a silent video to whet their emotionless minds. The continuous degradation of social interaction had led people to function like robots, only focused on their own mobile phones and being mindless about the things that are transpiring around them.
New social cancer
As goes emotion, so goes the world. The exodus of reaction and response will play differently in the eyes of people. Athletes without pride are athletes without purpose. Scientists without curiosity are men who are content with what they know and do not wish to know any more. People without love will stand next to machines, indistinguishable; to remove the entirety of emotion would leave the world undefinable. There is a multitude of possible causes for such a world. One as mentioned would be through technology. The fixation towards it will be the root to a world wherein we cannot distinguish real sensations from the 1s and 0s in the computers.
Another is far more sinister, and could hit us like a plague. For this disease of emotionlessness has already been given a name: Asperger syndrome. Asperger is a form of autism that creates difficulties in social interaction, often handled through therapy. Basically it is teaching a person how to act and behave in social situations. This goes through facial expressions and gestures. Smiling and not knowing why though is far from cured. What if this misfortune hits us in multitudes? Our world would come down like a house of cards. It is emotion that strings our lives together. Without zeal, we will have no economy. Without hope and desire, we will have no religion. A mother would see her child no different from how others do. This dystopian wasteland is without jobs, families and time.
The idea of time is also built on emotion. Our past is constructed with our regrets. Our future is riddled with fear. Without emotion there is neither a past nor future. It would simply cluster together with the present, as if we are experiencing all of life in an instant. Although it may sound desirable to have a world without regrets and fear, it is this negative that paves that way for the positive. Something to regret is something to improve or make better. Something to fear is something to overcome. Life without either a negative or positive is hell but without both would only be purgatory, a midpoint without joy not suffering.
This world will have no war for it has nothing to fight for. This world will have no peace for it has nothing to stand for. This fearless emotionless forecast presents the worst show on earth.
One reply on “Fearless Forecast: The death of emotions”
Asperger’s syndrome is not a disease of emotionlessness; it’s a social disability problem. Aspies feel sorts of different emotions–happiness, sadness, depression, anger, etc. The only problem is that they have difficulty relating with others because they don’t know how to “properly” act in certain situations. They lack some the sensitivity to feel what is socially appropriate and not. These things have to be explicitly told to them. As a result, they are perceived to be insensitive by others and become alienated by peers and colleagues. This actually causes them depression. If you try reading the forums for Aspies, you will see they are very much like neurotypicals (people without Aspergers). They want to have friends and establish relationship with others.