Suppose someone says one day that they are lying to themselves all the time. You as an individual in this society accept that as a fact of nature and life, and while yes they probably have been lying to themselves at some point it is not in the way that you think.
The way that most people conceive lying to themselves is this, I am not sad, they are not dead, they conceive it as you are telling a false truth but you know differently and what the truth is. To lie to ones self is not all that hard people do it every single day. We just don't think of it as lying. The way that a person lies to themselves is actually pretty simple, we lie through doing and being. The way that this happens is by playing a role in life that we think we are. Take a president of a company for example, they say that they are the president and yes in a way that is what they are doing but that is not what they are. It is a role that they are made to play in society today and while they may play it well it is still not that person. Another example to look at on the opposite end of the spectrum is an elementary student, you sit in a classroom, pay attention and are silent for hours on end, and listen to one person speak. For one it is not natural for little kids to sit still that long and two a student is not who that kid is it is another mask to the real person that may never be found. The reason for this is in life we put on so many labels and so many personas that we practically are what we are doing or labeling, it is not hard for you to get lost under the mask of just going about a normal everyday life.
So in conclusion we all wear masks for one reason or another just the same as we are all lying to ourselves everyday without really thinking that that is what we are lying about. So try to look for who what you are but don't be surprised if it is not what you expect.
I agree with you. We all have a façade. We act a certain way around different people. For example, we are well mannered around authority figures. We are more cool, calm, and collected around family and friends.
ReplyDeleteI find this perspective very interesting. There are things that I agree with and there are things that I disagree with as well. I agree with the fact that kids are not made to sit still for long periods of time. In fact, I don't think most people are made sit still for as long as we make children sit still for. But, I don't think that having different roles in your life means that you are lying to yourself. I think that people are still being themselves while they are at work or school. I know when I was a little kid I knew that I needed to be quiet while the teacher was talking but I did not lie to myself about the fact that I wanted to talk. If anything I was lying to the teacher about being a quiet person. I think that we have to portray ourselves in different manners and even "put on masks" throughout our lives but I don't know if I consider that a lie to oneself. I think we are only revealing the parts of ourselves that we feel our appropriate to show until we can be more comfortable around the people we are talking to.
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