I'm an adult man, I don't have feelings!
Empathy is the worst, and I never cry. Don't care about animals or children, either!
You meet them in sports, and in politics. You meet them on the street, in gangs or alone. Those tough guys who feel that they must build up as much capital consisting of evil deeds as possible. They compete for evilness, hoping to some day be on top of the list, being known and feared by everybody.
But they don’t care, officially. And they’ll beat you if you suggest that. They’ll also beat you if you don’t suggest it, because then you are not sufficiently afraid of them.
They are on steroids, which keeps them up-beat and psychotic.
And they stay like that until they don’t. Because, inside, they are human beings. Real ones, with feelings. They may have killed many cute animals to prove that they haven’t got any feelings, but some day, they’ll sit down on the floor and cry.
Maybe some individuals will never get there. Some have a defect in their brain, I suppose, that will prevent them from ever noticing that they do not really fit in. But those who are without that defect, they’ll some day understand that they have been misled in life. By themselves, possibly, or by others, their idols, whose living image they tried to be.
Well, that myth about the crying monster might be just that, of course – a myth. Rambo, just about every monster in every book or movie, and even the occasional tough businessman who spent half his adult life crushing all competition, firing tens of thousands of people, burning forests, polluting the sea and giving us all cancer – he might turn around and decide to give several percents of his fortune to charity.
It may be that some of these people and monsters just try to earn themselves a better reputation than what seems to be likely, based on their lives so far. So doing something that looks good could help on that. But that’s a feeling! The feeling of wanting to be remembered for something good.
Another feeling they may have is their love for themselves. It’s not a joke, because when, some day, that feeling is shaken, when they suddenly understand that they don’t measure up with other people, not being as intelligent, strong (they can’t keep on looking like Schwarzenegger all life), feared, or whatever, and they understand that they’ll need the help of others to survive any further – then they understand that they are not the best, not anymore, if they ever were, and they may lose their love for that self-image.
Apart from such people who were born without a functioning nervous system, so that they literally cannot feel anything, most people can. Feelings through the sensory system, and through the heart, so to speak. But when trying to camouflage this fact throughout a lifetime, they don’t get much practice in using these feelings for anything. They are often staying at the level of a small child, in some respects, while growing muscles and buying guns to prove that they are adults. And very adult, as they are bigger and stronger than everybody else.
Suppressed feelings may be so weak that they hardly count as feelings, and they may still be pushed aside by a psychotic mind. But the feelings are there. They may even want to spare that kitty or poppy that obviously need a bit of care. Even the biggest of monsters might poor a little milk in a saucer for that fragile little one.
And maybe that’s why some of these bullies and villains will be loved by someone. Their mother, perhaps, who wants to believe that they are good inside, and who remembers them from when they were little babes who looked at them with innocent eyes. Or even a spouse, who somehow believe that penetrating that rough facade is proving that they have the feelings strong enough to be able to love the beast.
Whatever we can observe, like this, is probably supplemented by so much more, thousands of times more details to describe the person and their feelings, that it really doesn’t make sense to just admit to them that they are right, that they don’t have feelings. They most likely have. And they most likely aren’t at an adult level, so that part of the claim is wrong too.
Factoids
It's not about right or wrong, it's about thinking – capturing typical thoughts and turning them around, inside out, to see what they're made of
We are all multifaceted. Unless you are a Disney villain, there's probably a part of your heart that still feels. There's also the past to be considered. There's a saying in my country: "La mula no era arisca... la hicieron a palos." This roughly translates to the mule was unfriendly because in the past it had been beaten. It's not always the case and even if it is, it's our responsibility as adults to come to terms with the past and not perpetuate violence cycles, but it does add nuance to most bullies.