Layers of Masks*

I think I lost more friends and family by being honest with them than friends and family I lied to my whole life.

When one lies to another that person  puts a mask on. Whether they fudge the truth or withhold important facts, a full clear view is not revealed.  Wearing a mask tricks your perception into whom you are interacting.  It could be straight up deception impersonating another, or in a drama sense for entertainment.  Either way, the person you are seeing is not who they are portraying. It takes a thimble full of intellect to tell the difference. When the criminal and the actor combine undetected it's trouble. So stands President Donald J. Trump. He's wearing the biggest popular culture mask of all. The Trump family Christmas portrait has masks on top of masks.

Did you ever live with someone for an extended period of time and know a secret about them that they didn't know you knew?  Never confronting them directly?  You are wearing a mask, not exactly truthful or honest, maybe staying silent for security sake.  Just 'holding your cards' as a poker player might say, but your true self isn't present in that relationship.

 "Al, does this dress make me look fat?" 

 "No, Peg, your fat makes you look fat. The dress is fine."

My ears burn when I hear someone say, "I love my job." I listen carefully, then realize the con of tricking me into asking questions all about her and her mundane life.  It doesn't take long for the Job Lover becomes the Bitch on Wheels, hating the Boss, gossips on the company and if I stick around, find out she is looking for a new job. Actually. An Appearance Mask, gosh, there are so many.

I still startle and amaze life-long television watchers - which is pret'ner 100 per cent of people - pointing out the Green Screen/Chroma Screen effect of television production.  It's how the weatherman does his reports. Where I was familiar was the Cable Access studio in Sacramento.  It was a 10X15 room, painted white.  At one end was a green movie screen. On that screen was projected a live stream video, for example, an empty parking lot.  No people to harass the talent and the crew, a long panorama.  The reporter can be standing there giving the always most in-depth reporting as local news can deliver.  SHE'S NOT IN THE PARKING LOT, FOLKS. She's in the studio, even if  she signs off "This is Karen Montgomery, reporting from an empty parking lot on the West Side.  Back to you, Jughead."

I first saw this used in a cable access studio 12 years ago.  May we assume technology and production values would improve?  I have seen snow reports obviously staged with someone throwing rice in a fan to simulate the snow being blown by The Creator.  Hilarious when slip ups happen.  Every hurricane report to me is suspicious, no matter how brave/stupid the reporter is standing on the beach in a rain slicker.  Hollywood is everywhere, my peoples. 

I was disparaging the present day reporters wearing their surgical mask, talking into the camera. How absolutely asinine it is, as if, he/she/ze is going to spittle on you ensconced in your sofa. But, they have always worn masks. Even Walter Cronkite.

Discernment is weak as we live in what I have named, "The Wrestling Age".  As one screwed up kid, I couldn't be convinced professional wresting wasn't real. I will acknowledge my lapse of insanity, my defense youth and hormones. "Can't you see Bruiser and Crusher can take a punch?" I'd argue.  I can safely state today with confidence that professional wresting is fake. I had been wearing the My Own Lying Eyes Mask. Familiar?

Now UFC is forced upon us. Wasn't play-acting punching someone in the face enough for people?  We have to see the broken cheek bone sticking out.  The blood real blood. The matches are vicious, brutish and short. Life in a nutshell. I don't understand it, never will, but when I meet a fan of UFC,  I shy away.  The Tough Guy Mask is thin skinned and unpredictable.

Afterwards I felt awful  going to my first "random" drug test for work and sneaking in my dog's pis as part of the specimen (I passed).  Kinda funny, but it made me a liar and a cheat and I resent it today, just to keep my status as a wage slave in the system.

As I will refer to a recent post of mine - https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2020/11/personal-standards.html - much of recovering myself from a self administered mentally torturous situation, to my present state of half-sanity has to do with striving to stay truthful and being honest. I say that in the humblest way.  One can follow the journey on the 750 posts of EWS.  Staying honest with people at all times isn't as difficult as being honest with yourself. Just a word of advice, kid.

My point in all that personal history review is on topic of wearing a dirty, ineffective piece of cloth around your face in public these days.  If I can be grateful to all those Maskists out there, I can only thank you for showing me out front that you can't or won't live an honest life. I can stay away.  Not a chance of showing your true self, you are up to something. Taking masks on and off all your days whether they were visible or not.  I suspect you don't want to show your true self in order to get something out of me, or someone (The G, perhaps).  

Obedience to be a manipulative device to normalize being dis-honest. That is sinister and mean.  

Maskists, wear that mask at all times because I want to keep an eye on you.