The great masquerade

The great masquerade

A by Jace wolf
"

A short, yet mistake filled, discussion about the uses of persona and how they define how a person is saw in society.

"

The great masquerade

By: J. Waggoner

 

 

What is in a face? What is in a name? This question is one that many people ask of themselves at least one point in their lives and is a hard one to consider in depth. To begin, a face is defined as a 'outward appearance', as is the definition that appears in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The definition of name is 'a word or symbol used in logic to designate an entity', as is told in the same dictionary. The summary of the work is a discussion about these terms and how it relates to the world in my viewpoint.

A face is often seen as the surface of a object that allows you to define it. This is seen most commonly used with people to define race, gender and the level of attention most give them. The issue with this logic is that it is a shallow method to define a person, since the internal emotional and mental state cannot be deciphered primary through this reasoning. The other thing that commonly comes to mind is our expressions and how they change, from a smile, to a frown and scowl at different people. In this way, society never sees the same person in the same way, just look at how people act at different locations. The true question is if the face or expression a mask or is it their true face? How can you tell?

A name is a different matter, it is made of numerous words or ideas that have distinct and similar meanings to whole groups of people. This is obvious when referring to the word solid and liquid, everyone knows what they are and instinctively put a image to them. The issue here comes when you attempt to define a person personality with words, precise meaning with clear definitions, to a person that can wear multiple expressions and behaviors at different times. How do you know you are right or wrong? The problem here comes from arrogance, from people commonly well educated and intelligent, who claim foolishly to know how a person really is. This is what society, groups and people more commonly do everyday, arrogantly giving people hurtful or helpful titles because it suits their single viewpoint. Words have been called weapons, which some are, if you need an example look at the racial slangs and terms like liar or theif. Watch how these words can be used to hurt people.

To begin with the further analysis, lets look at actors and their performances, showing emotion they do not feel to get you to believe what they say or do is real. This is done for profit and to entertain people, to please them so they can continue their profession. We as people are the same, acting the way we see fit, either to get along with each other or to make themselves seem larger and better than others. This is done differently by everyone and you will never find two people who act the same everywhere. In this way, we are all actors playing roles to fit in with people, the only issue is how do we know who who has real faces and who is wearing masks. The moral questions here is who has the right to decide.

Masks are complex, and are used commonly to achieve goals, but what are the details of these mask we wear. To begin, one must understand that a person never has only one mask, that they have a assortment of mask used for different situation. These masks or faces are changed constantly during the day, from family time, work, friends and back again. What is their connections, are they split sides of a person or do they share a bigger function, do they form the whole of the person's emotional and mental state? This is for the person to answer for themselves, not for any group of people who claim to know you more than yourself.

The ultimate arrogance in the world is to claim you know the face of a person is the real one, forcing  them to become what they think you are. To explain why this is wrong, look at the various insulting comments that tell people they are wrong  because of how they act, judging people for the sake of others and the protection of their group. This is done more so out of fear of how a person will become or truly is, forcing them to become what others call them, if they listen. This is a basic flaw we all have,  placing masks and false names onto things we don't know, simply to try and understand them better. Sadly, these names become a unwritten law after a time and become a means to judge whole groups of people and divide them.

This final paragraph will finish off this document. My opinion on this matter is that the mask we wear, the names we give things and faces we wear are an important and vital part of our lives. They play a vital role in enabling us to connect as a people and allows us to get along in harmony. The downside to  this is that people can falsely impose their own ideas of the world onto others, leading to fighting, division and possible bloodshed or wars. The only masks you should wear are those you have made for yourself, and you should never be afraid to look into the mirror at who you are. The only one who can know what you are is yourself, and the only way to find that out is to think for yourself. To those reading, you can take what you want from this, just think for yourself.

 

 

© 2009 Jace wolf


Author's Note

Jace wolf
Focus more on the details of this writing, not all the grammar mistakes.

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I really liked this text, can't believe I'm the only one commenting. Maybe we should stop trying to define others as "how or what" they are but instead define them as "how they make me feel and who they are to us"

I would say the problem with human social life in general is that it lacks personal responsibility. People get offended by the fact that some people exists... They take everything as a personal offence without looking into themselves to see what is really hurting them. If we where to change this people would be safe to create personal perspective of things, the "masks" in terms of identity will always change and maybe we need to cut each other some slack in order to make it painless.

Very good text

Posted 10 Years Ago



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Added on August 24, 2009

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Jace wolf
Jace wolf

laurel, MS