Regret

[Sir Bustalot]

Is regret an escape from the consequences?

I say a mean thing to a friend, and theyre mad. And now i regret doing it

Is the regret itself useful? Does it have any purpose? Is it fixing anything, itself? Or is regret like denying the consequences? Is regretting avoiding the pain? Or justifying the pain? Or replacing your personal pain?

And do i need regret to know what i did was wrong? Obviously i dont. So why? Is regret a justification to your ego that youre really a good person and not what the thing you did makes you? "I regret, so, just so you know it was a mistake, im not actually a liar, ive learned and feel pain, im still a good person deep inside because the pain proves it really"

If i live with the consequences is there a need to "regret" ? And is part of regret "justice"? If the other person knows of your regret isnt it part of punishment for doing the thing? Sure you may add on punishment, but isnt part of the whole process of regret part of the justice and punishment? Is regret a way to punish oneself?

If i know you regret, i know you feel bad. Dont i feel a bit better?

So wtf is it? Isnt it obviously flawed? If someone doesnt need regret to know they did something bad, and as a victim of a bad thing, someone regretting actually does nothing for you other than superficially satisfy your ego, what in the shit is it for?

It doesnt make sense to me because it really seems entirely useless on all sides does it not?

[cody]

i'm not sure why, but i am not familiar with the feeling of regret

maybe its cause i am an over thinker, and when i finally come to a decision about anything i have already weighed the pros and cons a million times

i trust myself, once i make a decision - i stick to it with no regrets

i'm trying to think of a time i regretted something..

maybe treating people a bit better at certain times..

[216 God]

batty bwoi shit

[Resilient]

Regrets.

I’ve had a few.

But then again, too few to mention.


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[Vulgar]

It leaves you stuck in the pass. Just like guilt. People destroy their lives wallowing in both.

[216 God]

Busta

It's pretty basic Evolutionary Psychology

Regret, shame, guilt

All of these are primitive affective responses we evolved living in small tribal bands where pissing somebody off possibly meant being exiled from the group and left to die and shit

Regret was useful because it usually leads to rectifying behavior.

Shit like depression and wallowing in regret is the million year old piece of machinery that is your brain going haywire because it's not totally evolved for our modern environment

[Sir Bustalot]

I know but knowing that regret is useless, flawed, illusory we will still feel flashes of regret. Why, knowing its false, does it not sink in? Truly. What is preventing it? Why hasnt regret been eradicated as a thing? Not specific regrets, or your regrets, regret as a whole. We all obviously see its falseness. Yet it exists still. Why? Its a good question i think.

And if we know that we dont need regret to know what we did was wrong, why do we say regret leads to rectifying behavior? Because we know already the thing even without regret. So what im pointing out is its an escape, avoidance And for a victim of something terrible its satisfying to know the other is "regretting". We all know regret on some level, you at least know what it means, and so we know if we think they truly regret its so painful and so yes it feels nice theres some justice for my wronging, isnt it like this?

Its a good question i think, if we all can see regret's complete falseness on all levels. Why is it a thing that happens to humans? Do we know its falsness? Or just understand all the words that make up the explanation?

[216 God]

You are honestly all over the place.

[216 God]

And it's kinda hard to call something false or illusory when it's a neurobiological reality.

A network of shit lights up in a brain scan when you're experiencing regret.

[Sir Bustalot]

I may not have been clear but im still talking about the same thing. I know about regret, im aware its a real thing as far as something human minds do

I pointed out how we all know regret is stupid and pointless... we agreed. My question is why even though we can see its stupid and pointless, why does is even exist? Why is it something we go through as humans? Knowing its pointless, we will still feel it and some will still be a slave to it. Why? As humans who know its false, why has it taken such a hold of our psyche?

When i say its false and illusory i mean that we established its uselessness, we established its selfishness, we established it doesnt actually do anything for anyone. We can think it does, like if i know you regret saying a mean thing, on a superficial level it makes one feel better to know you regret. And as you pointed out regret CAN drive corrected behavior but its not needed. Regret isnt needed to correct your behavior, or to know what you did was wrong. So why does it exist?