deathpixie | On the subject of masks...

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We all wear them. We have the public persona we project to the world, the one we hide behind and use to protect ourselves from the harshnesses and vagaries of the ratrace we call modern society. We have the image our families project onto us, and sometimes if we're lucky that image is pretty close to the way we actually are. The smiles we wear for our friends, and the frowns we wear for strangers. There's the people we wish we were, the ones we wish we weren't, and the ones in between.

There are times when I wonder which is the real me, under all the faces I wear.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: "The Matrix" - Soundtrack.

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From:

doqz.livejournal.com

You know that you are horribly bored right now, don't you? :) It's probably raining there too. Usually is when people start thinking about masks.

Of course people present different facets at different times! Come on! Would you really prefer to live in a world where everyone was a card-board cutout? People, for the most, are litle more than the sum of their parts. The trick is of course is that there is a hell of a lot of those damn parts - family, friends, what you ate for breakfast, the first book you ever read, the weather. It used to fascinate me when I was little, how every person is basically a center of his/her own universe. Every passerby has his own circle of friends, his own family, his own web and every one of his friends and every one of their friends.. and so on and so on. And every day they are influenced and they influence literally thousands of people by the most miniscule of actions. A guy drives 30 in a 50 zone, enraging the driver behind him to the point of blind rage which erupts against the innocent kitchen cabinet upon the latter's arrival at home, which changes the day for the repair man, which pisses of his wife, which gets back on the son who makes the teacher miserable the next day... endless. By the end of the week the whole world is pissed off because some scmuck couldn't drive like a normal human being.

Anyhooo... The masks. The ever-so-elusive point :-) They are not masks. They are facets. Sides. And you show what is appropriate at the moment. You wouldn't wear an evening gown to the pub crawl, right? But there are plenty of people who are found in both such situations. I wouldn't really worrying about losing 'oneself.' One of the most popular themes in philosophy and one i find utterly.. bogus:) Lose yourself behind a mask? The other word for it is growing. Growing up. Growing different. Evolving. Pick one. And I would truly fear the day if you do decide to become the 'same' every day and for every one. It's an often belabored point as to how the net allows a person to build the image they desire. True to a pointIi suppose. At a certain point the real person usually comes through. Not their 'masks', or 'sides', I mean I doubt anyone of your friends defines you as "Judget' or as the 'Fanficcer'.' And sure, some or most of them may be completely unaware of what one of those. because that's not what they base their assosiation with people on. "Who you are" vs. "what you are", I think. And that is very hard to mask. Or lose. Exceptions are there of course. Family for example. One place where i think a person is definately defined as the 'daughter' / 'son.'
But hey, find me a more illogical institution than family?

From:

deathpixie

*laughing* Gold star for the Doqzling. One of my metaphysical wanker-trips, a bad habit of mine when I'm bored adn depressed. Thanks for the wake-up. :)

Actually, one thing I meant to add but didn't, which explains the "true self" comment, is the feeling that sometimes the many masks I wear pigeonhole me into a persona or personas that don't allow me the freedom to show certain feelings, or behave in a certain way. At the moment, there's a definite lean towards me being the "strong" one, the one who copes with crises and is always cheerful in the face of crap. Not a good thing, because when I do feel bad, or angry, or whatever, I get this feeling of guilt, that I'm not living up to expectations - my own and other people's. Not that I feel I have to please everyone, but the opinions of my family and friends are important, and there are certain people who have the ability to hurt me a great deal by thinking badly of me. This had happened, the day before this post, and I was feeling frustrated, because I wanted to be angry and irrational, and it was deemed to be "un-Jo-like" to be so. *grfs* Stupid, I know, but sometimes being irrational is like that. You think stupid things. Only problem with LJ is, other people read them.;)