Anything that diverts your attention from without would be bad for the same reason: a sudden movement, the commencement of some noise, a change in temperature, an adjustment of the ambient light, celery suddenly tasting like sugar cane. That does not make these things bad. It makes them attention-getting. Pain is attention-getting, but that can’t be all there is to it.
What about brief pains, then? If I touch something that’s built up a static charge and it shocks me and I experience a moment of pain, it quite promptly “lets go”. Why does that situation seem worse than the situation in which I touch something that has built up a static charge and experience the scent of roses, or the sound of a flute, for that same moment?
I agree with the below discussion. Pain allows an external person/thing to override my existing thought processes. It’s like mind control.
But is this my true reason? I don’t think so.
Anything that diverts your attention from without would be bad for the same reason: a sudden movement, the commencement of some noise, a change in temperature, an adjustment of the ambient light, celery suddenly tasting like sugar cane. That does not make these things bad. It makes them attention-getting. Pain is attention-getting, but that can’t be all there is to it.
I’m not sure I’d characterize those things as not bad if they distracted me from what I’m doing. Badness is subjective.
It gets attention and WON’T LET GO.
What about brief pains, then? If I touch something that’s built up a static charge and it shocks me and I experience a moment of pain, it quite promptly “lets go”. Why does that situation seem worse than the situation in which I touch something that has built up a static charge and experience the scent of roses, or the sound of a flute, for that same moment?