Why does anything matter?

Understanding this question precludes one's psych-social paradigm.

For example, a strict materialist who is convinced that all that exists is the result of chemical interaction and accident cannot attach a "reason" for why we feels or care. They can only address the subject of nerves and physical senses that are involved in the experience

On the other end of the spectrum, a person who intuits or sense there is more (perhaps even what we call a spiritual aspect of reality the normal physical senses cannot perceive) would see consciousness and sensitivity as based in something else and these physical forms and systems are like a tuner the real "person" is channeled through.

I feel that living without a tendency to care or fear is a sad sociopathy in which we miss so much of life. Hold cold and meaningless life and our exciting differences of personality, culture, looks, would become....without being able to enjoy or be repulsed (of course these are extremes) how would we exist? Life would become meaningless IMO.

Honestly, a variety of views begets a variety of answers, which when it's a question with no exact "right" answer, is welcome when a person needs input as I did when I wrote this. At the time I wrote this, I was also very tired of being hurt feeling and sad feeling for no apparent reason, then all the sudden I felt anger for no particular reason. Emotions are a fickle thing that have no rhyme or reason sometimes, and when that is the case they can get in the way both of your social relationships and of your life in general, not to mention your sanity. So yes, at the time, I very much wanted an "emotional off switch". Yea, it's nice to feel emotions when they make sense, especially the positive ones...but when you go weeks at a time with emotions that make no sense at all, and are negative ones, emotions become a detriment and very unwanted.

Seems like this conversation has come full circle. COTM , I felt exactly like you for practically my whole life. Your questions lie rooted in emotional pain.
There are many things that people do to not feel , or can change , the way they feel.
Did you ever think that you could have some control over your emotions ?
It's my own view that you can have some control over those emotions that come about from " outside you " , ergo , the physical world. And also that come from within. It's all about how your " wired". The only reason we feel anything is because of our physical body. For example, if you had a lobotomy or were dead
you wouldn't feel a damn thing. Now some examples of how you can change your feelings have already been mentioned , . You do have the ability to do it if you know how, period.As to your original question, why feel at all , that's a philosophical question, or religious, or whatever. The reason, in my belief, has already been said. It's what makes us human. And remember , this universe is made up of opposites working together. Plus and minuses, yang and yang. Without the bad , we wouldn't know the good. When you start feeling some good in your life , you will " feel " better.

I know you can control your emotions. That doesn't mean that you will never have negative emotions again though. If you noticed in my last response, I said "at the time I wrote this post". I was explaining why I posted this. It was not me cycling. It was me explaining. Same as I am doing now.

Right now there is a lot of stress in my life and as a result, sleep is suffering. Those things always take a toll on emotions.

I have had periods where I have felt that way myself. One of the underlying challenges I have come to realize is my sense of "safety" has been very compromised. I have had a lot of trauma in my life and it has affected me more than I realized. Trauma always has a lasting affect on a person even though a person survives a lot of traumas.