by ay2164

Created on: February 24, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

The greatest pitfall of the human condition is the peculiar, yet innate ability to be delusional. Delusions come in many forms, though. Many of them are fed by people around you who's constantly giving you praise, especially if you fit in quite wonderfully into one of the norms that define our ideals of beauty or success. Or, you be could exotic, and that, for some reason, can be highly desirable, too. But do you ever look into the mirror and realize the reflection is nothing but reflections of other people reflecting on you? If you find yourself beautiful and attractive, is it because you really think you are or because other people think you are? What defines beauty? Hypothetical question: if you're somehow born on an island and stranded on it all your life without being able to get in contact with any human being in the world, would you be able to know you're beautiful? How would the concept of beauty even matter to you?

Right. Perhaps beauty is subjective. But we all know that's not true. We do have a collective pool of ideal beauties. People look at each other and find each other attractive. It's innate. It has something to do with biology. There may be an objective standard. The fact that we don't all agree doesn't mean there is none. We just don't know what it is yet.

Back to my original quest. Since we cannot know by our ownselves without the help of other people's perspectives to define our beauty and attractiveness, it's easy for us to believe that we are good-looking (or not), simply based on the information that's been feeding to us since the day we're born. Vogue magazine, Victoria Secret catalog, E entertainment are all agents responsible for these feeds. But most importantly, without the people behind this, there will be nothing.

There is a difference between narcissism and just being plain delusional. Narcissists know who they are deep down, but they're merely playing the illusion cards in their advantage. When conjuring up a mirror, they see themsevles behind it, but they know it's irrelevant as long as people don't see what they see. Delusionists (if that's even a word) cannot see past that thin veil of ignorance. They actually believe they are beautiful, boosting their pride by feeding off of more ignorant information coming from all directions, and attacking those who disagrees. And that is the saddest condition of being human. Once you're conditioned into believing that the Matrix is real, what's there to turn back to? Would you even think

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>