The Mask

[Mole]

Oddly enough institutions tend to be invisible to us.

We can see and feel our own bodies and obsess about them. And we can even see our own personalities and obsess about them. But institutions tend to fall off the radar screen.

This is odd because our institutions shape and inform us.

So not to understand our institutions means not understanding us.

Take my institution, the Australian Catholic University.

I ran smack bang into it - I ran smack bang into the authoritarianism of my university.

At first I tried to find my way around it. Then I tried to understand it, and even formed a little theory involving chaos, authority and creativity.

But nothing happened until I realised that the authoritarianism of my university was mask.

So I was fighting with and trying to understand a mask - it was like fighting with smoke.

But once I realised it was a mask, all I had to do was to take it off.

And guess what I found underneath.

Yes, I found depression. Yes my institution hides its depression under a mask of authoritarianism.

 

[iwakar]

When I tear off a mask, I usually just discover a coward.



--Mask-tearer being a mask-wearer, is not exempted.

 

[Mole]

When I tear off a mask, I usually just discover a coward.

It sounds you don't like what you see when you tear of a mask.

And to me it sounds like you are angry when you don't like what you see.

Anger can of course be a mask, but no emotion lasts for ever, so eventually we will be able to peek behind the anger.

Let's face it, the anger is fiercely defending something.

And my guess is that something is very important.

But something that needs to be listened to with exquisite tenderness.

 

[nozflubber]

I like masks. I don't think they are bad, because a face is the same as Tesla once said about space: There are no inherent properties.

People have encouraged me to drop my masks, but I find more satisfaction in adding additional ones. If I ever complete my ESTP mask, you probably won't see me on this site again! Been too damn busy after spending a week hustlin' in Miami dawg!

 

[Mole]

I like masks. I don't think they are bad, because a face is the same as Tesla once said about space: There are no inherent properties.

People have encouraged me to drop my masks, but I find more satisfaction in adding additional ones. If I ever complete my ESTP mask, you probably won't see me on this site again! Been too damn busy after spending a week hustlin' in Miami dawg!

This sounds like a good idea. The only problem with masks is when we don't know we are wearing one.

 

[nolla]

Yes, I found depression. Yes my institution hides its depression under a mask of authoritarianism.

Well, anyone who needs authority is someone who doesn't like to make decisions. If you don't want to make decisions, you are in a way depressed since taking part of life is to make decisions. So, yeah, you are right. I don't know if it is a mask, though, since institutions are vague things to begin with... If we don't see it, why would we need it to have a mask?

 

[nozflubber]

This sounds like a good idea. The only problem with masks is when we don't know we are wearing one.

that's perfectly fine though, don't you see? Unless you want to be a psychologist or metaphysicist, it doesn't even matter.

O'brien was right: sometimes 2 + 2 = 5.

I think you can equal 5 at that Uni if you really want to.

 

[Jack Flak]

Post-Modern depression?

In the middle ages, I believe it was more fear which "kept the mask on," as you put it.

 

[Wild horses]

But is depression a mask for something else, it certainly is a reaction to something else.

 

[iwakar]

It sounds you don't like what you see when you tear of a mask.

And to me it sounds like you are angry when you don't like what you see.

Anger can of course be a mask, but no emotion lasts for ever, so eventually we will be able to peek behind the anger.

Let's face it, the anger is fiercely defending something.

And my guess is that something is very important.

But something that needs to be listened to with exquisite tenderness.

That's not always the case, but when it is you're spot on.