Giacomo Graziosi

Sono semplicemente senza parole anche se mi rendo perfettamente conto che ce ne sarebbero fin troppe da dire…

Princes use God as a bogey to get their grown-up children to bed when nothing else will any longer serve; which is why they value him so highly. [...] Since that ultima ratio theologorum (final argument of theology), the stake, has gone out of use, the effectiveness of this means of government has much diminished. For, as you know, religions are like fireflies: they require darkness in order to shine. A certain degree of general ignorance is the condition for the existence of any religion, the element in which alone it is able to live.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Darkness.

I don’t really have any will to find the right words so I’ll borrow Schopenhauer’s ones.

Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.

We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.

Can you find any way to escape?

People interaction is nothing more than a complex theatrical show: everytime you speak to someone your brain classify the one as belonging to a specific human group (friends, parents, strangers, beautiful girls and so on) and then it loads the proper interface to filter you, your personality and communication accordingly, that is, in other words, very similar to what actors do on the stage set. Don’t ask me for a proper scientific proof of this thesis as now it is for me nothing more than psychological reminiscences, the best source I can find for you came from italian literature and, of course, doesn’t provide any kind of proof. Let’s continue assuming that with a little introspection mixed with some decent observation of your social environment you should be able to keep this thought as not completely fool.
Now try to guess what happens when your brain loads the wrong interface because it fails to identify the proper human group. Yeah, you probably got the point: more space there is between the correct and the wrong interface, more retarded you are appearing, there is no escape.
The following question now is “Is it my fault? Can I avoid this kind of mistakes?”. I fear there can’t be an easy answer to this, it vaguely resemble a chess match and to me the only way appears to be observation and practicing: the more reactive you are and the more different kind of interfaces you master, the more you can move the error away.
As for me I found myself quite incapable with managing old friends that I haven’t met in a while (some years): I try to interact with them remembering how they used to be but this approach is sometimes faulty because of minor or major unnoticed changes. Handling them as strangers is faulty too bacause at the beginning you could look too formal. At the end, I don’t really have an answer but I’ll let you know if I will find one.
Maybe beer…