Asymmetric personal philosophy
Aug. 4th, 2007 11:26 amI've had lots of time to think during drives between the old & new houses. One thing that struck me recently was that my world view/personal philosophy is asymmetric: when good things happen, I generally attribute it to "the universe" sending me signs that I'm doing the right things, but when bad things happen, I generally either think of them as random events or signs from my subconscious that I'm not doing the right thing. It's interesting to me that positive things are potentially given by external forces, but negative things are perceived as coming from an internal source. Understand that I still believe that many positive or negative events are simply random events (from my point of view) -- I don't look for signs in all things. But there are some things that really do seem to speak to me, and those are the events I'm talking about.
At first, I thought that this sort of asymmetry was unusual, but then I got to thinking that maybe this is the norm. I know lots of people who "take credit" for good things, and blame others for bad things (internal vs. external again). Many Christians give credit to God (external) for good things, but blame their own weakness/sins for when bad things happen.
What do you think? Do most people view positive and negative events very differently? What does this say about a person? Or, maybe this whole thing is about those people who view some events as significant while viewing other events as strictly "random".
At first, I thought that this sort of asymmetry was unusual, but then I got to thinking that maybe this is the norm. I know lots of people who "take credit" for good things, and blame others for bad things (internal vs. external again). Many Christians give credit to God (external) for good things, but blame their own weakness/sins for when bad things happen.
What do you think? Do most people view positive and negative events very differently? What does this say about a person? Or, maybe this whole thing is about those people who view some events as significant while viewing other events as strictly "random".