2024-12-20
It's funny when life imitates art. I'm reading Anna Karenina right now and in one scene, two brothers are arguing over giving access to education to everyone, including peasants. One of them lays out the facts. The other considers the facts and more or less thinks, "yeah, but I just don't care." I feel like I see this argument play out over and over again, but not everyone is as willing to admit that they don't care or have a personal vested interest in what is "right" or "true." So how can you argue with those people, then? Is it even worth arguing with them?
Can you force people to care about something? If appealing to logic doesn't work, does one have to appeal to emotion? Authority? What do you have to do?
On a sillier topic, I had an argument with my mom about something. She wanted me to do something for the sake of looking better in front of other people. But I don't care about that. Literally nothing she could say would make me change my mind. It was an example of clashing values. I just found it funny how it kinda mirrored the same conversation in Anna Karenina between Levin and his brother.
Anyway, I'm not a philosopher, and I'm bad at rhetoric, but it's something I think about sometimes. No answers, only questions.