 Why Do People...?
When the Academy Awards were on the agenda it reminded me of an inside joke we used to make with friends. Whenever we question someone's intimacy or whenever we think that the person in front of us is lying to our faces we used to say the classical phrase “and the Oscar goes to...” Even if does not make a lot of sense we used to laugh. It makes me wonder; why do people need to be in a “character,” role playing to others especially the ones they have just met?
Even if we think that we do not pretend to be another person we subconsciously turn into someone else from time to time, depending on the environment and people around us. Is it related to the “person” we want to be in the future or are they our real thoughts that are hidden in our minds popping up occasionally; making other people question our intimacy or is it simply based on some cultural background?
Does this mean that we don't want to be ourselves, or does this mean that we are afraid of other people’s thoughts and reactions occasionally. Let’s assume that we are not thankful for who we are, then here comes the question (the question that I've spent a couple of minutes to understand after reading it from a website): “When you don't want to be who you are but you've never been anyone else, when you've pretended so much its hard to distinguish who you really are from the facade, and it seems no one around you can do much better, how do you change?” (I bet you see my point.) Let’s assume the other way, let's say that we are afraid of what other people are going to think. Is it logical not to face this fear and “pretend” for the rest of your life?
As you can see there are plenty of questions with regard to answers. We only have assumptions in our hands just like our thoughts about other people. We can only assume and cross our fingers in the situations of trust. And it looks like we don't even know why we are acting different from time to time.
I can't think of finishing this “brainstorming” without a quotation.
“Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me!”
By Nazlý Çelebi (ECON/IV)
n_celebi@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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