Recent elections have made me thankful that I have my very own internal monologue! Of which I find to be my compass in an external world that rarely represents my interpretations. I don’t know anyone whose inner world truly aligns with what is presented out there, and I’m unsure if that is intentional. Internally, I have always felt represented. As a child, I believed society worked straightforwardly: you feel something, you speak it, you compromise, and if it is reasonable, others accept it. I thought it was very simple. Maybe it still is, considering how the simplest things become the most complicated, especially through legislation. Occasionally, you see crowds thrilled about an election result, but it is rare to hear genuine excitement about officials once the glow of winning fades into the holidays. The autumn of civilization wants sweet summer children, yet it inevitably needs the opposite. Come winter, the place for the people is repealed to make room for trash from the merchandise.
Representation is far more than political, though it’s also fair to say politics has become something more than political as well. It appears anywhere interaction sparks a reaction. In my view, it does not exist on its own but is built from countless choices an individual makes. It resembles character building, a fundamental art. A piece of you taken and used, almost like a talisman. People mock the talking heads and the puppets in government because that is exactly what they are, a homunculus. It might sound silly, but the image fits. Representation in government, entertainment and public life has become an exaggerated parody of human traits, all laughing at something sacred with wide clown mouths. It goes beyond right or left, beyond the laws written by man, because it comes from the same essence people are made of.
Think of a friend group where everyone has a role. Even if you drift apart, you recognize pieces of them in new friends and new groups. It feels as if they never left. Everyone you have cared for remains within you, shaping who you are, similar to the idea that you resemble the five people closest to you. You connect with others because your differences sit close together. You do things for those beside you without noticing, all while seeking more people with the qualities that define them. There are unspoken oaths taken among friends. One is that even if you are so different, you respect one another. It is not possible for such oaths to be kept if their nature blatantly disregards yours. This is the foundation of relationships.
Then there are people who will never meet you, never know your name, and may not even know how to pronounce it. Yet they take on roles meant to trigger a false sense of connection. When you finally see that for what it is, why choose it at all? You are better off alone than with empty versions of representation. Anything is better than a distortion of real humanity. After years, decades and centuries of being lied to and misrepresented, we are still strong because who we are is tied to the core of our being. Everything outside or beyond us only reflects the purity from within.
