The Narcissism of the Freak

Often while we are engaged in our daily business we are jolted from the concentration devoted to our task by that curious species of human, the freak. There they are, presented before you in all of their grotesque spectacle assuming any manner of guises; those who exist for mere shock value bedecked in metal studs placed strategically about the face and body to elicit the most exaggerated of responses from passers by; the renegade hipster who deals liberally in profanities and arcane dress while refusing to shower out of a self proclaimed respect for his mother Earth; the village idiot who uses his body as a sounding board for any two-bit, so called, artist who is in possession of a scrap of wire and a bottle of India ink covered by failed attempts at adroit expression. Their sole objective in life is to shock, to offend, those who they view as members of accepted and traditional social groups, in hopes that they will stand apart from the rest of their fellow men and as such they will be remembered. It must be stated that the overwhelming majority, if not the entire population, of these self inflicted social outcasts adhere to the failed collectivist ideologies as if it were a religion of sorts, and that their overt attempts at invoking shock is a form of uniform worn by this sorry lot. When prodded as to the impetus of their dress or adornments they are quick to cite the expression of their individualism and a distain for accepted social norms as their source of motivation, feeling quite proud in their ability to stand apart from you and me. They then turn to the other members of their sloven tribe and heap criticism on you, your supposed shallowness, and you inability to see true art as such. To them you are the rube, the fool, the caricature of everything they have sought to rebel against their whole miserable existence. This desire to express their individualism is a direct result from the suffocating effect of their self imposed collectivism and produces a stroke of irony that leaves one shocked and startled by its nakedness.

This compulsion to claim an individual identity is the direct outward manifestation of the end product the collectivist mindset produces through the emotional pressure excreted on the human psyche. As man is susceptible to the forces of his intellect and his will, he is driven to carve out his own niche through the social interactions conducted between members of his circle of friends and associates, both intimate and casual, as well as indirect. In the instance where one is constrained through the inherent limitations placed upon the psyche by collectivist philosophies, in which one is simply a solitary member of a greater whole, the desire to fulfill this latent individualism seeks the path of least resistance. Often this results in the individual seeking to shock or repulse other members of the social construct by rebelling against the accepted social norms in order to garner that ever so small sliver of attention they need in order to satisfy their will through the recognition of their individualism. The desire to exert ones individualism becomes all the greater when one becomes attached to like minded individuals striving to exert their own identity. The result is often a compulsion to rebel to an even further extent as he, as well as the members of his circle of friends, becomes desensitized to the relative volume of their rebellious dress and adornments.

This phenomenon can be observed directly through a visit to the various haunts frequented by members of the so called “art community” and their lackeys seeking to emulate their mannerisms in hopes of being viewed as intellectual or “cutting edge”. These sorry few who long for nothing more than a few awkward glances from those who hold traditional values and mores sacred often congregate in great numbers in places deemed cool by the more experienced members of their clan, often in the absence of simple hygiene and sanitation. Here we witness a competition of sorts as they each vie to one up the other in hopes of becoming viewed as the most outrageous among the outrageous. This habitually involves the most extreme examples of self mutilation and physical deformation one can imagine as they each seek to exert their will through artificial means as true competition amongst other men within their social construct, to them, has become an anathema. How they do revel with each new flechette they proudly affix to their face and head as if they had achieved their ultimate goal of forced devolution into the new world of the collectivist savage. Each step towards some form of otherworldly grotesqueness becomes a badge of honor worn as though they were proud members of a hunting party returning from the wilderness with a fresh catch in hand to share the fruits of their hard fought labor with their fellow savages. How sad and petty they have become as their only outlet for their latent individualism has become self mutilation, macabre dress, and physical disfigurement.

But this is what is to be expected when one become so engrossed in the drive for a personal identity when one is confined by the restrictions of a collectivist ideology. Though they openly proclaim to abhor traditional social patterns and norms, they do so out of the realization that everything they proclaim and hold true is a sham open to simple psychological and philosophical deconstruction. Contrary to their lofty self image they are fools and simpletons for placing so much intellectual and psychological capital into such a corrupt and destructive worldview. Even if one were to attempt to put in plain words all of the obvious contradictions and paradoxes encountered by their actions one could not proceed one inch towards convincing them of the underlying errors in their philosophy for they so deeply believe in its absolute truth as to label all contradicting ideas as lies. Sadly this is their state, and nothing shall convince them of the fallacy of their thinking, as we, as the true free thinking free men, are relegated to simply tolerate their vulgar actions and bear their stupidity until then end of our days.