The depth psychologists tell us that we human beings are composed of multiple layers of being, or consciousness. Some believe that we are innately comprised of a collective unconscious – that we have an archetypal memory that calls to us down through the generations as a species, to fashion our existence with common-enough and familiar symbols and practices.
In truth, we are not what we appear to be. The image we present, our façade, is not always, perhaps is seldom indicative of our substance, our deeper self.
The thirteenth century Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, said as much with these words:
A man has many skins in himself, covering the depths of his heart. Man knows so many things; he does not know himself. Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, just like an ox’s or a bear’s, so thick and hard, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.
This can be a useful metaphor, meaning that each of us has the potential to move beyond our superficial nature to a more transcendent state of existence.
I think the moral sense of today that is being violated is the belief that the self is merely what you see; that a deeper sense of self or one’s substance is nonexistent.
It is as if in today’s modern society, we as a species have lost our grasp on the process of individual thought: of analyzing, contemplating, reasoning, concluding, and creating. That instead of ourselves deciding what we are or should be in relating to the world, others do it for us. We become pawns to that and to those who would influence us: the faddists, the trendsetters, the handlers, the charlatans, the unethical, and the profit based.
As the Editor-in-Chief of this very magazine pointed out in her editorial when she wrote about AI (Artificial Intelligence):
Did anyone stop to think of the ramifications of a machine “thinking and acting” on our behalf … about what can happen when these machines take on a life or mind of their own and exceed their programmed limits? (Victoria Schmidt, El Ojo del Lago, July 2024)
In other words, we have becomethe image – living out our lives from the top layer, forgetting or ignoring if we ever were aware that multiple layers of our consciousness lie beneath the superficial, most obvious layer.
In doing this we have set ourselves adrift from the rich complexity of life and settled for the obvious, the quick fix, and the transitory.
Another example of this theme pops up for me when I think about the news media, specifically the coverage of political and social protests, demonstrations and rallies. Here is where both those who are participating in the events and those who are reporting on them present fascinating examples of image over substance.
I am reminded of a particular Civil Disobedience action I was involved in when I lived in Los Angeles. Lots of movie stars showed up for that one. At any rate, the stars were discussing with the news media before the cameras started rolling where they should stand, where they should look, and whether or not they should be wearing their sunglasses. Image, image, image. I can’t even tell you whatwe were demonstrating against (or for) that day!
I do think there are those who become wheelers and dealers in society, not because they really have anything of great substance to offer us in the way of increasing the quality of humanity’s worth, but simply because they have known how to present a good front.
This seems to cut across all levels of society today, and of course not just in our own country.
And for me this is a major moral issue.
We certainly see it in the area of religion these days, with one denomination after another fighting within their ranks, and outside of those ranks, with those who disagree with them.
I do think this is indicative of a society floundering when it comes to deciding moral issues, where it really should be a very simple process. For me, the complications have arisen not because of the substanceof religious teachings. Most seem to posit universal truths and humanitarian goals. But then ecclesiastical hierarchies get involved and create rules and regulations, creeds, doctrines, and dogmas, and therefore dilemmas. All of those seem to me to be the image of a spiritual striving, not the substance.
And politics today? Not just in the United States but throughout the world? How much of it is merely image and not substance? Certainly, when a politician is attempting to be elected, she/he/they will promise many things that they know, and we know they can never deliver when and if they are elected. But they sound and look good on the stump, i.e. when they are running for office. But once the winner is in office? Then the reality of the situation, of what a political leader can really do, sets in. At this point the politician’s image has been stripped away, revealing the substance.
I guess this combat between appearance and reality is timeless and universal. It’s just that in today’s world, this is a battle royale, a contest in very sharp relief. It is rather like having the Sword of Damocles poised over our heads, ready to drop.
NOTE: Don Beaudreau is completing his twelfth book, a funny and satiric novel about Cape Cod.
- Image Versus Substance - February 28, 2025
- I’M 80! - January 29, 2025
- A Myth For Our Time - December 26, 2024
