I like this blog site, I like the people on it. I think that it's a great place to write and get feedback. I can't help but notice that not everyone is getting on very well at the moment. That is to be expected, with so many people around, that have strong opinions, and beliefs and are willing to voice them opinions and beliefs, this is what makes this community so great, but which also causes conflict, so do we accept it? Do we ignore it? Do we try to understand it? This blog is not about this conflict, as I think it's already been given enough blog space, but it is maybe partly what inspired this blog. We are all normal everyday people, I use the term normal loosely, as what's that exactly? We are your average joe's as the site puts it. We sit here behind our computers and we let words flow through are keyboard to the readers of JU and then we await, in some cases the responses of the opinions of those we have grown to respect, and appreciate feedback from. Do we ever let the real us show? We let a part of us show, maybe not the part that we show our family, maybe not the part we showed the shop assistant or the milkman, not the part we show our friends, not the one we show our neighbours. Like it or not, there are many versions of us. We are different things to different people. That doesn't make us fake in anyway, it just makes us human.
Now that is the subconscious alter ego, we are not aware we do this. In our minds we are the same person all the time, but that is not possible, as we grow to trust people, as we grow to care about them, our behaviour changes accordingly, so it's impossible for us to be the same person we are with our partner for example as we are to the postman. Thats a good thing though, it shows we are versitile, it shows we can adapt quite well to different situations, it shows we have understanding of behaviour. There are other uses for the alter ego though. Comedians use the alter ego very cleverly. It must take alot of guts to get up on that stage and 'try' to be funny. That's where the alter ego comes into play, it can be used on occasion as a defence mechanism, you can hide behind it. It isn't the real you, whatever that is, it's just a part of you. I'm generalising here, but keep with me, as humans we judge each other all the time, we compare ourselves to each other, and we even set ourselves up to be judged by others, such as comedians do. If they fail miserabley, if they are truely terrible at what they do, the alter ego provides some sort of cushion for that blow, it's what helps them to get up the next night and do the same thing.
Another thing, and maybe more importantly the alter ego is good for, is saying things you wouldn't normally say. We live in a world that is run by rules, like it or not, we all have rules to live by, constrictions. Of course we have freedom of speech, but just how free is that, we all know there are politically correct and incorrect things to say, and we all know that we can be judged severely by making such comments. I'm going to use the comedian example again, comedians can get away with saying alot more things using this alter ego technique and we can get away with laughing at it too. That's the beauty of it, these alter egos, can become characters, characters that we know are wrong, that we know are silly, that we know are not saying the right thing, but for everyone of these alter egos, there's a person out there that actually holds this opinion, that believes them things we consider to be silly, and these alter egos while stating they are these people, they do it in such an over the top manner, we know it is silly, and we can laugh at these people. They actually serve a purpose. It would be nice to live in a world where we thought it was full of decent people, but we don't. There are all different kinds of people, with all different opinions. We may not agree with them, but it is better that we acknowledge these people than remain ignorant like they do.
I hope you know where that all came from folks, or maybe I'm just in a world of my own. I'm not saying that anyone here is fake, i'm not saying that we are all alter egos, I'm just saying be aware of it. Here we are real people, who laugh and cry just like anyone else, but when you are presented with a character that isn't necessarily what you agree with or who is very over the top in what they say, maybe the best idea is to accept it for what it is. We all hide behind certain things, anyway I've waffled enough! Happy blogging!