Open Book
I'm toying with an idea that I haven't thought through completely. (Which differentiates it from my usual ideas how, exactly?)
The idea is this: abandon privacy.
Transparency. Not just in business, but in life. No more pretense, no more phony degrees or invented relationships, no more efforts to keep our online identities secret, no more denial of peccadilloes, or misbehaviors or weirdnesses.
If it was all out there, for everyone. Would anyone care that you like MILF porn? Or that you collect Barbie dolls? Or that you go through three times the average amount of toilet paper?
Everyone has something to hide. But they only have to hide it because revealing it would place them at a disadvantage. If you happen to enjoy wearing opposite gender clothing you don't necessarly want that fact coming up during a job interview. Unless. Unless you know the guy conducting the interview likes wearing diapers. In fact is wearing them right now.
Openness obliterates the power of shame. At least shame over minor lifestyle differences. I kind of think people might still frown on murder. But generally when we're hiding something it's something stupid. And the only way it hurts us is if we swim in a milieu of hypocrites who conceal their own kinks.
We all hide who and what we are because everyone else does the same. It's an arms race of phoniness. Look, I know you didn't have sushi for lunch, you had a sticky bun with extra icing. So what? I had three bong hits and a box of Entenman's donuts.
We would be free. Free, I tells ya! Freeeeeee!
The idea is this: abandon privacy.
Transparency. Not just in business, but in life. No more pretense, no more phony degrees or invented relationships, no more efforts to keep our online identities secret, no more denial of peccadilloes, or misbehaviors or weirdnesses.
If it was all out there, for everyone. Would anyone care that you like MILF porn? Or that you collect Barbie dolls? Or that you go through three times the average amount of toilet paper?
Everyone has something to hide. But they only have to hide it because revealing it would place them at a disadvantage. If you happen to enjoy wearing opposite gender clothing you don't necessarly want that fact coming up during a job interview. Unless. Unless you know the guy conducting the interview likes wearing diapers. In fact is wearing them right now.
Openness obliterates the power of shame. At least shame over minor lifestyle differences. I kind of think people might still frown on murder. But generally when we're hiding something it's something stupid. And the only way it hurts us is if we swim in a milieu of hypocrites who conceal their own kinks.
We all hide who and what we are because everyone else does the same. It's an arms race of phoniness. Look, I know you didn't have sushi for lunch, you had a sticky bun with extra icing. So what? I had three bong hits and a box of Entenman's donuts.
We would be free. Free, I tells ya! Freeeeeee!
This entry was posted by Michael Reynolds, on
Wednesday, December 31, 2008.
You can leave your response.
3:50 PM
I'm partial to shame. It keeps me seeking reconciliation with God and my fellow man.
6:30 PM
I think that among other things, there are aesthetic reasons why we don't want it all hanging out, all the time. What works better is if we can genuinely know that behind their acts, which often look so together to us, other people also have abysses of embarrassing kinks, habits, thoughts, and inadequacies, so that we do not think ourselves unique in having such.
I once engaged in a two-person "meditation" that had that effect. Two people sat across from each other and one said to the other, "Tell me who you are," and for five minutes the other one says, whatever. My partner went first. He said "My name is M_______, I'm a carpenter, I'm a father . . . [with a look of disgust and misery on his face] I'm full of shit." And he went on and on in the same vein. A little bell rang, and it was my turn, and all I could do was gasp, "I'm just like you! I'm just like you!"
It was an extremely and liberating exercise and I would recommend it to anyone once. There's no need to repeat it. The effects are permanent.
8:15 PM
Everyone has something to hide.
Except for me and my monkey.
It's an arms race of phoniness.
That is a great line.
(Word verification: misly. I'm just having one misly little piece of cake tonight.)
1:50 AM
It's an interesting idea, but don't you think it would make sex a little bit less fun if what you and your mate did weren't hidden away?
1:38 PM
Didn't Jim Carey try that in a couple of movies? As I recall it didn't work out so well... of course that was just a movie, and a Jim Carey movie at that.
9:58 PM
I love the arms race of phoniness line, though perhaps for a different reason. I hereby add this corollary: disarmament would be nice, but unilateral disarmament would be idiotic.