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The Unbearable Arbitrariness of Deploring - by Bryan Caplan

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Caplan and Candor

As a self-identified non-Neurotic man, I’m not surprised by the social ubiquity of anger, sadness, and fear. When something bad happens, my instinctive reaction is to say, “Calm down, it’s OK” – especially if it doesn’t personally affect me. But I recognize that I’m odd. When something bad happens, a psychologically normal person’s instinctive reaction is to say, “Oh my God, that’s terrible!” – whether it personally affects them or not. At this point in my life, I’m almost inured to the anger, sadness, and fear that normal people chronically express. They’re clearly just built differently…

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