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By: Roya Monajem, Tehran royamonajem@yahoo.com Breaking Self or the MirrorHowever, as a contemporary human being we know that there are various types of mirrors (such as concave and convex types) that distort the image. So would it still be Œwrong¹ to break the mirror?¹ Instead can¹t we say "Death to anything that shows us ugly?" (And how this term "Death to" is becoming the most familiar political Œslogan¹ that we have been hearing in the past three, two decades.) But as there have always been some reflecting surfaces that distort images, we may ask how did we come to know which image is the True Image of us? In order to answer this question, we can start by asking another question Œwhere did we first see our image?¹ That is before the advent of artificial Œmirrors.¹ What was the first Œmirror¹ that human beings discovered? It must have been the surface of water, no? And they concluded that the image of them in water is Œthey.¹ Why did they reach such a conclusion? Because they found the same person each time that they saw their reflection in water? (Would we recognize ourselves if we were forbidden to see ourselves in any mirror or mirror like surfaces throughout our life and only at old age, we were shown a photograph of our Œinfancy¹ Œadolescence¹ Œadulthood¹ and Œold age?¹ "Will I recognize myself if I were shown a picture of the day I was born?" I personally don¹t think so. It is very difficult to distinguish newborns, particularly because their eyes (windows to the soul) are normally closed.) But a more interesting question is perhaps Œwhy do we like to know how we look? When did this curiosity develop in humans and out of what possible need? Why don¹t animal seem to have the same curiosity? (Of course there are exceptions among the individuals of the same genus, particularly those that live with human beings.) Was it the look of others that gave rise to that curiosity? How did and do look others? Other people as other anything usually inspire either admiration or aversion in us. And we call what inspires admiration in us Œbeautiful¹ and the other as Œugly.¹ And so the first layer of judgment between beauty (good, virtue) and ugliness (evil, vice) starts to take shape in our minds. Now the question is if this is the most basic layer of our judgment between Œgood¹ and Œbad,¹ then why animals and small children sometimes show different judgments? For example, they may find our Œpleasant¹ people Œunpleasant.¹ What is causing this difference? The most obvious answer is the mutual interaction between our genes and our environment, and by the latter I mean all kinds of cultural, religious, social, familial and individual Œconditioning¹ that we go through from infancy to adulthood. Despite that the above definition for beautiful (that which inspires admiration) and ugly (that which inspires aversion) still holds true. Now if we can agree on such a definition, then the curiosity in relation to "how do ŒI¹ look like?" could have arisen from another curiosity to know what do "I" inspire, admiration or aversion?¹ But what may be the need giving rise to such curiosities? Remembering the fact that animals and small children do make the same Œdistinction¹ could it be that it is a need as basic as our other physical and psychological needs? And by basic needs I mean those that have a survival value. And the least we can say about the survival value of having the ability to distinguish between Œbeauty¹ and Œugliness¹ is that it helps us to avoid what may be harmful. An ugly scene of a putrefying edible thing with its nauseating, putrid smell signal Œdanger,¹ like the sign of skeleton found on any dangerous objects or set up as signpost near any dangerous site. Therefore the ability to distinguish between Œdangerous¹ and Œsafe¹ is as basic as our other instincts. We may say that this is the major difference between our physiological and our Œacquired¹ judgments. The first group is relatively Œabsolute¹ and the second group absolutely Œrelative and time-dependent.¹ Now let us look for the most general qualities that inspire admiration in us and thus we call beautiful? Many natural sceneries and objects and among people those who emit an immediate soothing, assuring, trustful, giving, loving, charming impression. What do these (scenes, objects, people) do to us? They give us a good, pleasant feeling. And what are the most general qualities that inspire aversion in us? Anything that gives us a bad, unpleasant feeling. And what normally or basically gives us bad feeling? Anything that would make us Œinsecure, anything that would turn on the famous physiological response of Œflight or fight.¹ For example, an offensive smell may turn on the above mechanism because it may mean the object producing that smell may be full of disease-causing microorganisms. In relation to people, our feeling of insecurity is aroused by distrustful, unfamiliar, mean, awe-inspiring others. Now let us go back to those old words of wisdom that ŒIf the mirror showed your true image, break your self, it is wrong to break the mirror.¹ In other words, "Outside is a reflection of Inside" which simply means whatever I see outside is a reflection of "I." That is why I should not "break the mirror, but my self, if it shows me my true image." So now the question is do I find a person, for example, restless or awe-inspiring because that is how he/she truly is, or is he/she acting as a mere reflecting surface for me? And how can I know whether the image I am watching is a true image, as true as that seen in an ordinary mirror or a Œdistorted¹ one similar to that seen in a concave mirror, for example? Does a person inspire awe in me because he/she is an awe-inspiring person or he/she is awe-inspiring because I am inspiring awe in him/her? Palestinians inspire Œawe¹ in Israeli soldiers for Israeli soldiers inspire awe in Palestinians, President Bush and his allies want to attack Iraq, because Sadam may endanger the worlds¹ peace. (As though there is really peace in the world!) And Sadam tried to gather what is now threatening the world¹s peace, because he was scared and insecure in relation to his country¹s survival. And we have to sit down and watch all these games of insecurities, hoping that they would all find more peaceful ways to solve their Œantagonisms¹ arising out of the feeling of insecurity. And while sitting down, observing the above game and keeping our fingers crossed that the doomsday of an open Third World War would not start, we can work on our own individual insecurities. Then according to the law, likes attracts likes, the higher the number of individuals feeling more secure, the more powerful would be the quantity of the feeling of Œsecurity¹ ruling our world that would then may hopefully be powerful enough to dominate over that feeling of insecurity in the rulers of the world and different nations. The higher the number of people who realize that the slogan "Death to" is not any permanent solution for the ugly image that they see in the mirror, the greater would be the hope for survival of this beautiful blue planet of ours. eived¹ to play their games. ********************************* |
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