Ruling dogma changes every so often, and human beings are encouraged (and often forced) to mold and re-mold themselves into new shapes to hold it. Depth of conviction and strength of character get in the way of the ideal of human fluidity. We need to make ourselves as smooth as possible because any ridge or noticeable wrinkle on our personalities might make it hard for us to pretend tomorrow or next year that we always believed whatever it will be necessary to believe to remain acceptable.
As a result, we avoid having actual personalities. Instead, we have consumer preferences and quirks, lists of afflictions and diagnoses, and bouquets of victimhoods. They aren’t dangerous and don’t tie us to any idea or belief that might become dangerous in the near future.
Smoothness becomes our ideal of beauty. Like those reality shows about home improvement or beauty makeovers, we see the smooth, the identical, and the empty as beautiful. “I want open-concept spaces,” say the participants of these shows in voices that shake with an almost erotic anticipation. “Let’s take down as many walls as possible.”
Immanuel Kang explained that we are so overcome by majestic views of nature because they make us aware of our own incredible depth. But once we train ourselves to have no depth because we worship at the altar of transparency, we want everything around us to imitate the depth-less smoothness of our personalities.
Clarissa's Blog 