But everybody agrees that Luther makes some mistakes. I think the scroll on pity is too far afield. I think Luther went way, way out there.
It seems that the person who is pitied is more or less blameless. They don't control whether the other person pities them or not. And I don't know how they are humiliated if they don't even know they are pitied.
But, the person doing the pitying, that's a person who is actively doing something that is not Gorean.
Perhaps that is the true nature of the quote. How do we define what is meant by stating "pity"? Can we just state it or must we feel it to be considered humiliated or humiliating?
Can, we as Goreans, still be moved by pity? If pity is not Gorean, does it only exist among the slaves that intertwine the word usage of pity, mercy and forgiveness?
If we are moved by pity, is that humiliating? If we only looked at the quote as being finite and fundamental then could it be reasoned that all forms of pity is humiliating?
For example, if a slave begs for pity upon herself for screwing up something versus the potential death or punishment and the Master does nothing, did he just grant that slave pity? And is that in essence humiliating for him as well?
while John Norman never clarifies His specific meaning for the word pity in that statement,…
If it helps, here is the rest of the situation around the quote.
Tarl had befriended a lonely Woodsman, and shared a meal with the man. But when Tarl says who he is, the Woodsman is supposed to kill Tarl as a wanted Outlaw. But can’t bring himself to do so.
"Say you are not Tarl Cabot of Ko-ro-ba," he said.
"But I am," I said.
"I ask your favor," said Zosk, his voice thick with emotion. He was pleading. "Say you are not Tarl Cabot of Ko-ro-ba."
"I am Tarl Cabot of Ko-ro-ba," I repeated firmly.
Zosk lifted his ax.
It seemed light in his massive grip. I felt it could have felled a small tree with a single blow. Step by step, he approached me, the ax held over his shoulder with both hands.
At last he stopped before me. I thought there were tears in his eyes. I made no move to defend myself. Somehow I knew Zosk would not strike. He struggled with himself, his simple wide face twisted in agony, his eyes tortured.
"May the Priest-Kings forgive me!" he cried.
He threw down the ax, which rang on the stones of the road to Ko-ro-ba. Zosk sank down and sat cross-legged in the road, his gigantic frame shaken with sobs, his massive head buried in his hands, his thick, guttural voice moaning with distress.
At such a time a man may not be spoken to, for according to the Gorean way of thinking pity humiliates both he who pities and he who is pitied. According to the Gorean way, one may love but one may not pity.
So I moved on.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Empathy, Sympathy, or Compassion.
Pity by William Blake
Pity evokes a tender or sometimes slightly contemptuous sorrow or empathy for people, a person, or an animal in misery, pain, or distress. In regard to humans, a protective or quasi-paternal feeling of pity may be felt towards marginalized or impoverished people such as homeless families; orphans; people with disabilities or terminal illness, and victims of rape and torture. People who have previously experienced the pain or misfortune in question may feel greater pity. Because pity will often result in the pitier aiding the pitied, some people equate pity with sympathy and assume, therefore, that pity is naturally a positive thing. However, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche believed that pity causes an otherwise normal person to feel his or her own suffering in an inappropriately intense, alienated way. "Pity makes suffering contagious,"[1] he says in The Antichrist, meaning that it is important for the pitier not to allow him/herself to feel superior to the pitied, lest such a power imbalance result in the pitied retaliating against the help being offered.
Nietzsche pointed out that since all people to some degree value self-esteem and self-worth, pity can negatively affect any situation. Additionally, pity may actually be psychologically harmful to the pitied: Self-pity and depression can sometimes be the result of the power imbalance fostered by pity, sometimes with extremely negative psychological and psycho-social consequences for the pitied party.
In Ancient Greece, Aristotle argued (Rhetoric 2.8) that in before a person can feel pity for another human, the person must first have experienced suffering of a similar type, and the person must be somewhat distanced or removed from the sufferer. [2] In Aristotle described pity in his Rhetoric: "Let pity, then, be a kind of pain in the case of an apparent destructive or painful harm of one not deserving to encounter it, which one might expect oneself, or one of one's own, to suffer, and this when it seems near".[2] Aristotle also pointed out that "people pity their acquaintances, provided that they are not exceedingly close in kinship; for concerning these they are disposed as they are concerning themselves....For what is terrible is different from what is pitiable, and is expulsive of pity".[2] Thus, from Aristotle's perspective, in order to feel pity, a person must believe that the person who is suffering does not deserve their fate.[2] The concept of pity was part of the Greek literary traditions of tragedy and epic.
The religious concept of pity changed after the introduction of Christianity; while Greek and Roman gods were not believed to feel pity (since they were thought to be invulnerable), the Christian religion proposed a deity which felt pity for humans. By the nineteenth century, two different kinds of pity had come to be distinguished, which we might call "benevolent pity" and "contemptuous pity" (see Kimball). David Hume observed that pity which has in it a strong mixture of good-will, is nearly allied to contempt, which is a species of dislike, with a mixture of pride. It is an emotion that almost always results from an encounter with a real or perceived unfortunate, injured, or pathetic creature. A person experiencing pity will experience a combination of intense sorrow and mercy for the person or creature, often giving the pitied some kind of aid, physical help, and/or financial assistance. Although pity may be confused with compassion, empathy, commiseration, condolence or sympathy, pity is different from all of these.