4 replies to this topic

[Bibiana]

What do you mean by that?
"I was usually pretending or putting on a show when I was around people. When I joined the Chili Peppers at 17, I was frightened that the others wouldn't accept me because I was different and unusual. For my first couple of years in the band I was just trying to find my feet. I had to figure out who I was going to be, both in the band and as a person. I pretty much decided to be as similar to the rest of the band as I could. I was a mask in front of a mask"



well maybe stupid topic,but I knew,or feel it was just acting around people,and I am glad he putt off the mask out

[Fenix]

When you quote someone, use "quotations marks". Makes it much less confusing to read.

Am not sure what exactly there's to talk in this thread, but I do agree that John now can be what and who he wants to be. Which was reflected on The Empyrean quite well in my opinion.

[dakini]

I think we've probably all been in situations where we can easily recognize the mask we wore to try and integrate with a given group or distinguish ourselves from a group of "others," and it's really easy to think, "I don't like who I pretended to be in that situation, so I'm really glad I've finally dropped the charade and embraced the real me!" But I think the harder lesson to accept, and the far more accurate assessment of the situation, millions of years of evolution has resulted in our species being hard-wired as social beings. In our deepest cores, we are pack animals, and though everyone wants to believe they are a beautifully unique snowflake, once you scratch the surface and observe human behavior as objectively as possible, we are not at all as "unique" as we tend to think we are, and we all behave remarkably consistently in social situations. Groups of humans function just like groups of any other social animal, and we all wear various masks in various circumstances in order to achieve various aims, whether or not we are consciously aware of doing so. Which is to say, your "true self" doesn't really exist. You are the sum total of your biology, conditioning, and circumstances, and all of those things are constantly in flux. You only are who you are where you are when you are at this moment in time/space/history/culture/circumstance, and everything else is overthinking/rationalization to give you a sense of security in predictability. If we didn't think we had things pretty well figured out, we'd be terrified, but the reality is that our minds/senses are small, and we are especially prone to mistakenly believing we understand our own motivations and so forth, but science continually demonstrates we really don't have much of a clue and are just doing our best to get by and not crack from stress or get eaten by predators.

[Bibiana]

yes,so true :>I am happy he found himself,but I know understand to him,when I was 17,i was the same,

[Bibiana]

great speech,but it is part of human nature,pretending,that we were accept by others,and in age of 17,actually still we were looking for who we are