Peeling back the curtain

[SleepItOff]

I get the feeling that there comes a point in everybody's lives where they encounter that curtain from The Wizard of Oz.

The first type of person sees the curtain, and has their suspicions. They feel unsettled, but chose to leave it be. They may wander through the rest of their lives pretty contentedly, but will occasionally need to put out of their heads the discontent they feel when they think about that curtain.

The second type of person sees the curtain, but never thinks anything of it. They just sort of glimpse it as they pass by, but it doesn't leave any kind of an impression.

The third type of person gets the courage to pull it back, and are so disheartened by what they find that they actively refuse it. They've seen what's behind the curtain, but force feed themselves denial in order to cope with what they've encountered.

And the fourth type of person pulls back the curtain, and can never shut it again. No matter how badly they want to. They see what everyone else either cannot see, will not see, or actively ignores. And that curtain changes things.

It's hard to know which type of person fares the best in this scenario, but I think the one thing we can all agree with here is that nobody should have a right to someone else's curtain.

 

[MindfulEyes009]

I believe that too im the fourth type of person i wish i never opened it now what i have found haunts me no matter what i do

 

[Temporarilyabsurd]

It was a large room. Full of people. All kinds
And they had all arrived at the same building
At more or less the same time
And they were all free. And they were all
Asking themselves the same question:
What is behind that curtain?

You were born. And so you're free. So happy birthday.


'Born , never asked .' - Laurie Anderson , Big Science.

I've never seen the wizard of oz , but I am aware of the guy behind the curtain ( from a youtube clip ) , - he's orchestrating every illusion ?

There was almost a taboo in my family about that film that discouraged me from seeing it ... I think it may have disturbed my parents ?

A few people here have mentioned Ernest Becker , 'The denial of death ' .
My avatar is the cover from his last book.
Relevance ? I think EB showed what was behind the curtain (?), and if we all saw it , we would see how pointless a lot of suffering is for humans
and as his last book concludes , have a war on suffering itself.
That is why he is my guru.

If you are seeing your culture as a relative illusion , it loses it's power to alleviate the terror of our mortality .
According to Becker , that is why cultures were developed - to provide us with artificial 'immortality projects ' that would culturally compensate for our personal mortality .

That's why people get so passionate about some things that appear ridiculous to people outside their cultural narrative .

The solution ?
Basically put some blinkers on and get focused on a ' bite sized chunk ' of culture that you can get enthused about.
( easier said than done ).
In my opinion , some chronic depression stems from this loss of traction with one's culture .( thats how I feel about my own situation anyway ),


",,,but I think the one thing we can all agree with here is that nobody should have a right to someone else's curtain."
- I'm not sure what you mean here OP ?

For myself ... being lied to as a child ( religion / cult ) was parent's messing with what the curtain was , and when I saw that it was different it was hard to deal with .

Then the curtain became the whole human world of illusion that most cling to , or at least negotiate with to survive .

Sorry if I've missed your point , I'm passionate ( ha ha ) ... about Beckers ideas so I rave about them

It's hard to know which type of person fares the best in this scenario, but I think the one thing we can all agree with here is that nobody should have a right to someone else's curtain.

edit:

I deleted this reply and then reloaded the page and it was still there ... wtf ? draft saved facility is hard out !

'cos it wasn't deleted I thought I'd post it anyway .
I'm a compulsive write / delete person ... ( : ) )

 

[JustAboutDone]

I do love older threads