To See Ourselves As Others See Us

Oh wad some Power the giftie gie us

To see oursels as ithers see us!

It wad frae mony a blunder free us 

An' foolish notion ...

- Robert Burns

Click HERE for the whole poem.

There are times we can be pretty sure that there are among us people who really do not know that they have a louse crawling around on their oh-so-lovely bonnet, the bonnet they're so proud of that they wear it like a medal of honor.

In plain-speak they've got an attitude that others see as having a lot in common with the person sporting a louse on their bonnet,  - and really don't find it all that appealing. 

If they'd keep their attitudes and such-like to themselves we could and would probably just ignore them. 

When they dress themselves up in sanctimony and proceed to try to impose and enforce their ideas of what is proper and what is not, it's hard to ignore; especially if you're one of the ones who is supposed to comply without a murmur but just happen to have your own ideas about what is proper for you, ideas that don't conflict in any way with your ability to do what you're supposed to be doing. 

At the moment I have a specific situation in mind, but the general idea applies to plenty of stuff in all kinds of situations.

One image came into my mind and made me shudder. You'll see what I mean. One man's ideas, imposed and enforced, created what's in this image.

I was going to post a photo of the man himself but can't bring myself to do it. Cope as best you can. You know who he was.

When someone has a degree of power, big or small, and uses it to impose their will on others, questionable results might be in the making.

What if we were told we had to, each and all, conform to something that's a variation of the photo above? Maybe not to the same degree but with the same sort of louse-on-the-bonnet mentality behind it?

What if individuality wasn't allowed to be expressed? 

If you find yourself in a situation that seems to be heading in that direction, here's an idea about how to deal with it.

Please note that this photo is not intended as anything except to illustrate a point. I could have used nun-wear or storm-trooper-wear or standardized suits of armor or astronaut outfits or uniforms and masks or Casper the Friendly Ghost costumes or burlap bags or anything else that effectively obscures a person's own unique individuality/identity.  

You can hide all sorts of things under a burka, yep. You can have any color hair you want, a whole rainbow if that's what you desire. It can be as long or as short as you choose. You can go ahead and get as many tattoos as you want, cover your whole body with them, even all over your face. You can wear whatever clothes you find most comfortable (or none at all I reckon) under those things. You can have as many body piercings as you like, wherever you like, and wear your bling to your heart's content. These things are kind of like the old nun-wear only more effective because they cover everything except your eyes. 

See, the thing is that the people who think (and honestly believe) that their way is the only right way for people to be ... they don't have any idea in this whole wide world that there might be anything wrong with their thought processes. All they want is uniformity/conformity among every last person over whom they either have or want control. They don't realize that the rest of the congregation sees the louse on that bonnet they're so proud of.

So if you're confronted by someone who has a louse on their bonnet ... counter their list of restrictions and requirements with a compromise, a suggestion of your own    :    recommend that everyone (including them) wear burkas. Just to eliminate any possibility that people might be able to tell anyone apart from everyone else, you know, while respecting people's individual rights to make their own choices about whatever might be under that burka. 

Then hand them a copy of Burns' poem and see if they make the connection. My guess is that no they will not make any such connection, at least not in relation to themselves. They're far more likely to start looking for lice on your bonnet (or burka).

They might not be cognizant of the fact that a person really can still get straight A's in school even if they have a rainbow head and ninety bits of metal all over their body. If they're of that mindset, they aren't going to be all that concerned about your GPA anyhow. All they're going to be noticing is your appearance because that's their number one (maybe only) priority - not how smart you are, or how well you perform on a team, or how creative you might be, or how insightful, or how strong a leader, or whether or not you excel at your job, or anything else along those lines.

When things become all about appearances and conformity there's likely 'something that smells not so great in Denmark' (that's a paraphrase from Shakespeare, not a comment about today's Denmark, for those who didn't recognize the allusion - 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.' Hamlet (1.4), Marcellus to Horatio - it has to do with corruption, top to bottom).

You and everyone else might be perfectly well able to see and appreciate things that really matter (and those that do not) while the person who is in a position to either 1) recognize, reinforce, and encourage what matters or 2) make every attempt to enforce complete conformity - will be the one walking around with a louse on their bonnet.

Sometimes I'm kind of glad to be old. Nobody expects old people to be able to goose-step.

note: this does not apply to things like wearing helmets and pads and such for football or hockey; those are not optional. That goes for all safety-related things. Things that don't compromise your own or anyone else's safety ... those are what this is about   ;)  

*laughing*

What if everyone in the world, men and women and children, started wearing identical burkas so as not to distract anyone or offend anyone?

Equipment operators and such would have to wear modified ones, of course, so as to ensure safety, but only on the job. Off-duty they'd be wearing the whole nine yards just like everyone else.

Ye gods and little people, what boring photos Facebook and the media would have.

And under all those burkas would be all the beautifully unique, creative, and fascinating diversity of the people of our world, who would only get to show their true selves in the sanctuary of their own homes. We would be known to the whole of the outside world only by our voices and our eyes.

What the heck.

I vote 'No' on the whole-world-wearing-burkas thing. We wouldn't know who was who and every doorway would have to have a retina scan device. Either that or we'd all have to be chipped and the world filled with chip-sensors. Huh. We wouldn't know who anyone was but we would sure as heck be able to track where everyone was.

God help us.

If that's our alternative, I have to say go on ahead and wear your pants around your knees boyo, just so you don't fall over onto somebody's granny and mash her. Go ahead and wear your rainbows in joy and delight. Pierce every other inch of your body. Wear what brings you comfort and peace so long as it doesn't interfere with your brain function, health, or ability to do what you're supposed to be doing. 

I personally would rather see our diversity celebrated and each of our unique qualities and talents respected and developed for the good of all than a world full of people in burkas trying to goose-step our way through life.

People who object, please check your bonnets for lice, your persons for rot, and be sure to sit down very carefully.