The Hole and the Images

A few years back I was watching this rather nondescript film called "The Hole". It's been quite a few years and so I might not be able to remember the exact storyline. But it was not about the storyline: it was actually about "the hole".

In the movie, a bunch of teenagers discovered a hole- "a bottomless pit" which seems to lead nowhere. And if I remember correctly, one of them actually fell into the "hole" and discovered all the fears that have been harbouring in the head and eventually manifested in the "hole" which came and haunt them.

The best part was that before dropping into the "hole", they put a video camera in and they saw the images of a: "one eye monster". But when they actually fell into it, it was actually a bottomless pit filled with their own personal demons.

The "hole" was not a gateway to hell, it was your personal "hole"- your little "lack" of which you constantly strive to compensate your whole entire life. Your personality was built around this "little" hole. The bigger the hole, the larger the compensation. There is an adage to the "empty vessel making the most noise"- and this is form of which crystallizes your own personal psychological state.

I have recently noticed the insecurity of many men. The post-industrial age means that strength and other forms of archaic skills are no longer relevant- and insofar then masculinity are tied to these images of times of which the hunter-gatherer, the knight, the steel mill worker dominate the popular landscape. Today's men are so confused that they jumped onto any fad of which to justify their manhood.

The images of Western cowboy, gun slinging in the wild Wild West and with Marlboro cigarette still dominates the modern landscape. In place of western cowboy is the rebel without a cause, James Dean and in today's age, these images continues to stick in popular culture, trying to demonstrate unbridled masculinity in face of the cigarette being the anti-thesis of healthy living and living a life long enough to show your real manhood. The cigarette is the little hole called the manhood of which everyone attempts to find the justification for their differentiation from "La Femme".

In the movie, the image of scarred childhood dominated by a violent father haunt one of the characters, in popular images, it is the fear of the "La Femme" which defines one masculinity. It is not the violent father but rather, the fear of being obselete which haunts the modern man. Definitively male products is defined as aggressive lines but not practicable in real life. One can say that the interest which separates our division of labour previously is no longer congruent with popular values.

Therefore nostalgia and fantasy have us believed that we can have what we want and eat it as well. James Dean died before he reached 30, there was a recent show called "Cowboys versus Aliens" and that really sums it all up.

But lest we become obsessed with proving our manhood, rest assured that history have shown that are  these popular images of "unbridled masculinity" is really just popular "images" of history. For every hunter, there will be a person which sharpen the tools and the scout, for every knight, there are hundreds of pike man, for every steel worker, there are always factory and assembly line workers. In this modern age, the sportsman, the banker, the Internet entrepreneur, there are also thousands more that slogged every single day hoping to climb the rat race.

The rites of passages which defined the coming of age of yester years are nothing more than glamorized version of the progress of human culture and civilization which quite conveniently forgot about all the little people that made it possible for the world to tick today. These are snapshots of the past and not the reality. Your crisis that you faced now, is the same one that they faced 10,000 years ago, 2,000 years, 1,000 years ago, 100 years and yesterday. 100 years from now, the sportsman, the banker and the Internet entrepreneur will be nothing more than today's knight. No one actually believes them. And no, no one wants to live in that age anyway.

Hence, in today's winner's take all world, any way to differentiate oneself without really putting that much of an effort is really just a way of showing a difference without really adding value to yourself. The cigarette, the car and even the androgynous look have proven to be shortcuts of which is nothing to demonstrate the biological difference which translates into essential differences- which of course is expected to translate into tangible and material benefits. But if you think a little harder, really?

Hence, everyone really have a "hole", before you dropped into it, you will catch the glimpse of that "one eye monster", and when you dropped into it, you normally never like what you see and your video camera is really the crutch to avoid dropping into the hole- thinking that one can actually benefit without being curious and standing at sidelines looking in. You want to see what is inside, but you never see it until you confront it.

Buy yourself a camera and all you ever see is images.

Hence the strategy of many people is very simple. They never would want to jump into the little hole of their own but rather other's take the jump and transmit the images but unfortunately, all they would ever see is the eye one monster. Hence they fear the hole even more than before they first knew about it. This is the crux therefore of all envy, jealousy and latent rage. Everyone thinks that they have won but really all they ever saw is the one eye monster everyone else also see.

No one can have the cake and eat it as well.

Have you ever realised that not once did I ever mentioned about the materiality of the circumstances- it was never about me, it was always about you. In similar terms, have I said anything about you as well. Have i portray my friend, the person sitting next to me or anyone as a personal demon? It's your personal hole, and not mine. The little girl that crawl out of the hole in the second trailer and the little clown is your little nightmare that led you scrambling from door to door- closing one after another. No one closed the door, you did it to yourself because only the little boy saw it and the teenager saw it- no one did.

What about competition/comparing, about right/wrong, early/late, brighter/duller, about virtual/and real, about authentic/plastic, about passion/interest. Not once did I alluded to that. They are material because you saw the girl climbed out of the hole. You were scared- you did not know what was that.

Take care.

Have a drink and lie down.