The Emulation of Perfection

The emulation of perfection encourages a negatively self-conscious personality. For years I have said that the beauty magazines and media, although satisfy a certain niche, also give teenage girls low self-esteem as they attempt to become the epitamy of physical beauty. But, I don't think this is only true for teenage girls...emulating any form of perfection will cause low self-esteem and/or stress.

The world is a dirty fucked up place and when someone tries to ignore that fact then they are fooling themselves. This doesn't mean that the world is a depressing place, but it can be if you are exposed to the dark parts without the tools needed to handle it. People have flaws, people have dark places in their minds, people are not perfect and will lie to others and themselves as they attempt to hold on dearly to their perfect view of themselves and the world around them. Ironically, the world would actually be a better place with less lies if people only accepted the flaws and darkness that is everywhere. Why do people lie? Because they don't want others to see their flaws or shatter their picture of perfection they have fooled themselves into. People also lie to help others keep their idea of perfection intact. If people would only accept that they are flawed, that others have flaws, and that the world has its dark areas; then they would not have a reason to lie. Now I am not promoting the idea of just being so bluntly honest that you hurt the feeling others and come across as mean, I think that a person can accept flaws and still be supportive. Just because you accept the fact that there is darkness in the world does not mean that you have to be negative about it. Instead, when you accept the dark parts of yourself, others, and the world then you can now find ways to make those dark parts better. But, ignoring them will only make them grow until they become unmanageable which causes low self-esteem, pessimism, and a greater amount of depression then normally experienced. People get stressed, people get depressed, people have bad days, people have negative experiences, and when you ignore them they only get worse. The mask of perfection is the worst thing a person can do to themselves and others.

This is not exclusively about physical beauty, there are other ways of emulating perfection that can be damaging. Look at religion, being apart of a religion is not bad, many people have faith in their beliefs and that is fine. But, many people in a religion take on a competition of perfection with the other members. Which is made even worse by the competitive personalities in said religion that look down in disgust at people that show a crack in that perfection. There are people that I consider religious that are very supportive and understanding towards others, but they are also the same people that are open about their own problems and accept the flaws of others. Do you see where I am going with this?

Look at social networks, I personally love Facebook. It is a great place to keep in touch with friends that I don't get to hang out with because of my schedule or location. But, many people use social networks to strength the mask of perfection they have deceived themselves into and force it onto others. I think people should be themselves, darkness and all when they are interacting with people in person, on the phone, texting, emails, and social networks. Everyone has a dark place, everyone has bad days, everyone is not perfect because perfection is impossible to achieve.

This is a geeky example, but it was best described by Agent Smith in 'The Matrix' movie,
"Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization."

So, in my opinion, if people would accept the flaws of themselves and others, accept that the darkness of the world exists and not try to ignore or mask them then there would be less lies, less stress, less depression, and less self-esteem issues. This doesn't mean that stress, depression, and self-esteem issues will go away entirely. But, it does mean that they will not affect people as negatively as they do when ignored and allowed to increase in intensity until they become unmanageable.