NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/soc/bi/15334

Text File | 1992-11-19 | 3.0 KB | 62 lines

Newsgroups: soc.bi
Path: sparky!uunet!pipex!pavo.csi.cam.ac.uk!sa121
From: [e-mail] (S. Arrowsmith)
Subject: Re: Yet another thing that I wrote...
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (USENET news)
Nntp-Posting-Host: pidley.cl.cam.ac.uk
Reply-To: [e-mail] (S. Arrowsmith)
Organization: Glad to be Sad
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 19:57:48 GMT
Lines: 48

(This is a bit chaotic -- it was written from the bottom upwards....)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Clive Jones) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (S. Arrowsmith) writes:
>> [ ... ]  That there is a real you -- something more than the masks
>> presented for the benefit of others?  Would you dare to try and
>> remove the masks if you believed/knew this to be the case (I can't)?
>
>Basically, my experience is that this *can* come together of its own accord
>if you relax a bit and see what happens. Just find the mask that makes you
>happiest and wear it - it's probably your real personality, trying to get
>out.
>
But there isn't just one mask -- which one is most comfortable depends
on the situation (see the original posting).  Even if it were possible
to find a single situation and mask which could be carried to all the
others, I have severe doubts that it would be a/the "genuine personality"
-- I'm not sure that even exists (see above and below) -- merely the
most robust.  Part of the point is that the mask *prevents* the self
from showing (see below).

While Kevin writes:
>Ahhh...but by recognizing that you are wearing a mask, that shows that
>there is something inside, and that something is the 'you' as you see
>you...(did I lose ya there?  almost lost me...)
>
>The masks are not always there to benefit others.  Sometimes they are
>there to make life easier on the wearer.  And if this is the case, there
>may be reasons not to remove them.
>
I'm not quite sure what to say here.  Firstly, I disagree with the analysis
that if I can recognise a mask, the thing doing the recognition must be
something *other* than a mask.  I can look in a mirror and see a mask --
if I remove it, will there be anything behind?  Another mask perhaps?

On the other hand, a mask may certainly protect the wearer.  It could
well be what they started out as -- a shield, to protect the vulnerable
self from the hardships of the world.  Except that over the years, the
real self has never seen the light of day, always hidden by the layers
of masks, and, for all I know, has atrophied to the point of non-
existence.  That it pleases others to see the mask may just be a way
of making the *mask* less vulnerable to attack.

--
\S
[e-mail]  | There's nowt |"And in this moment, I need to be needed
(and elsewhere)  ___ | so queer as  |"When my self-esteem is sinking,
                 \X/ | folk....     |"I like to be liked" -- Peter Gabriel