Image is an interesting thing.

Image is an interesting thing.

I mean, being "successful", for example, is a good case. How do you take risks, and be authentic, and explore yourself and everything else, once you've already established yourself in a field?

It must be a nightmare to have to sustain the image of really knowing what you're talking about. I mean, sure, you can know what you're talking about for a while, but knowledge and wisdom come and go. The effort of pretending that you're more than anyone else must set a person up for alienation from everyone else, immediately.

I'm sure it's why successful actors and artists keep themselves to themselves. And I'm certain it's why people on GU remain anonynous. They don't want to have a face that can be recognised as foolish. The illusion has to be maintained.

And so, governments do the same thing. They gain power and, realising that their own integrity and connection to the truth wanes, they have to fake it. All authority does this from time to time. The bullshit becomes a necessity, and then they understand the dance of power that all powerful people play. Once they've had a taste of it, they know full well what it was all about, all along.

But the image thing keeps them locked up in their own private prison. They have to maintain whatever image it is that the general, unknowing public recognise them for. They have to walk a constant tightrope. Journalists have to strike some balance between truth and fiction, in order to stimulate their readers, yet remain within the boundaries dictated by the publisher or editor. They become bound to perform, as they have to maintain their image.

I mean, is a jounalist like Polly Toynbee stuck with writing about serious, sensible issues? How could she ever start writing about the colour of shit, or something? Yet we're expected to fall into categories, because people want that. And if we break out of character, we're seen as weird, or that something's up. Most people can't accept that they and everyone else is doing the same thing, and wearing a bunch of different masks for different reasons.

And so they don't grow.

And then there's the people who listen to the critics, and who as a result never let themselves make mistakes. They never let themselves look foolish, because being seen as foolish would embarrass them to the point of mortification.

So fuck image, I say.

But as I've expressed in this blog before, it does mean that I can't pander to the thoughts and feelings of friends. If I'm to be true, I have to be true to myself, and not mould myself to the belief systems of others. That isn't what being truthful is about at all.

Neither does it mean that I have to be constantly right. I have the right to be wrong! I'm not anyone's parent nor saviour, nor their psychotherapist, nor anything else that they expect me to be for them. I just do and say what I say, and if it's right, then great. If it's not, then that's too bad. My searching for the truth may mean I uncover untruths on the way. Who knows?

And again, it isn't my duty to be 100% right, 100% of the time. If it were, I'd deserve all the money and power in the world.

This is an interesting little epiphany.