Quote:
Originally Posted by znk
Dude....makes no sense at all. We care because we know Saku. We have a history with him. We always care more about what hits close to home. Hearing about the misfortunes of someone we have never heard about dosent strike the same chord as hearing about the misfortunes of someone you know (personally or not) because it's not random anymore...its closer to you. And hockey is not a fantasy world. It's entertainment in a the real world. One of the things that makes us different from animals....the ability to enjoy things.
When you have empathy you get joy from watching others live something joyful. That's why we get teary eyed when someone achieves something after a long life of trying.
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I said we didn’t really care about Koivu, the person, not Koivu the character. What makes Koivu different from anyone else is his role in the NHL. Koivu, the person, is a void as far as we know, his role could be played by many different "actors", but our feelings for him would be the same. We love the character he plays, but we don’t know the person. The same way we don’t know all the cancer victims we don’t try to help.
Empathy doesn’t make something or someone real. Movies, books, theater, etc. all move people’s emotions; every story relies on the viewer/reader emotionally connecting with the fictional characters they provide, it doesn’t make them real.
As I understand it, the difference between reality and fantasy is whether you are able to play an active role in it or not. You might use different terminology to describe the difference, but I think you must agree that it exists.