Welcome to the world of Paul J. Richardson. I’ve seen a lot of blogs and posts by people on the Internet. Many times, I am amazed at how mean or sick they can be. When I see those, I wonder to myself, what is this person like at work, or when around people face to face? There are so many of these types of things on the Internet, and yet, so rarely do you meet such folks in real life (or do we?). I find myself entertaining commentary like, “OK, if the TV shows and documentaries are all correct, then the average person, often has a bomb inside waiting to explode.”
The classic news at 5 interviewee says “He/She was such a quiet, nice, neighbor.” or “they were so reserved and professional at work, and very polite”.
Then there are the other anecdotal writings and messages, such as in ancient traditions and religions, which teach that in all the world, only one family man (Noah) was Godly, or that in all the entire city only one single family was worth saving (Lot, at Sodom & Gomorra). By far, the upright were FAR outnumbered by the vast majority who were depraved, immoral, and like wild animals (as perhaps Freud might call them). And so goes the quaint little ditty about the road to paradise being narrow (the road less traveled), and the one to hell being very wide, and heavily traveled.
I think that if you have probed every dark corner of your own heart, and traveled the world in search of your own limits and true potentiality to be “every man”, that you will find there are in fact few limitations, other than those you set your own self. It is the limits upon the self which define it. These limits may be created by the self – chosen consciously through discipline and wisdom, or they may be imposed from outside the self and accepted through blind ignorance or cultural programming. We may experience all the world has to offer, and we can fill our minds with books and ideas from all the great traditions and fields of study. However, we are not necessarily a product of all of that, are we? We can choose which among our experiences, should define us. Right?
Where and when do we gain this ability — to choose our own definition? Before the teenage years, from the time we begin to speak in complete sentences, it seems that we are largely influenced in our own self-image, by environment and biology. Even when we gain some meta-cognitive skills, reflective habits of introspection, and begin to see from whence the voice springs, who speaks behind the inner ‘coach’, or ‘conscience’, or ‘devil’ — even then, it seems that all our motives, all our goals, and even the personalities which comprise the thought-life and ideas our character produces, are in essence, predetermined by the atomic structure of our hearts, whether self-centered or altruistic, self-righteous or authentic, insecure or courageous, grandiose or sincere, gluttonous or free.
What struck so deep a chord for many of those who watched the series of movies which started with “The Matrix” was that (perhaps by accident) a great truth was lurking within the base principle of that movie. We are in some ways all actors on a stage. If we go on according to the script we are given, are we cowards? Who is in control of the script? And for that matter, what are the consequences of breaking some of the rules that we live by?
I think that you’d find Goffman’s sociological theory called the “dramaturgical approach” reflects many of the same ideas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goffman
His zygotal work:
http://books.google.com/books?id=HSpHAAAAMAAJ&dq=Erving+Goffman&source=an&hl=en&ei=Za-1SeX8HYvcmQeWotDgCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result&pgis=1
Not that you’d have the free time to read all this, but at least know that there is a actors/drama theory out there and it is pretty good.