The façadic desire
“Order - A situation in which everything is arranged in its correct place.”
Have a good look around you. At work, at home, out walking, anywhere. In most places you will see order. Tidy houses (unless you have teenagers), mown lawns, cars parked neatly, clean offices etc. Everywhere you see the world as a set of ordered images, a well-maintained photo album.
(I should preface the previous paragraph with ‘living in New Zealand’ or many other countries but certainly not all. Often the images we see of other countries are chaotic because chaos is news, order is not.)
Recently, I’ve been looking through a different lens, one less rose-coloured. What I’ve been seeing is the chaos lurking behind the image waiting for its time. Like weed seeds in gardens, as soon as you relent in your battle for order, chaos emerges. Stop weeding the garden, going to the gym, cleaning your house, buying new clothes (or second hand clothes), caring about your appearance . . .
“Façade - a false appearance that makes someone or something seem more pleasant or better than they really are.”
Most people spend their lives keeping chaos at bay, in one form or another. A constant battle to maintain a façade of themselves, of where they live, of who they are. Social media may be the embodiment of this façadic desire, a vehicle that allows an individual to portray an imagined life, ordered and free of chaos.
I’m thinking of creating a character based on this logic. One desperate to keep the façade they’ve developed intact despite chaos having already taken over.
Ever woken up on bright, clear morning under a hedge? My first thought wasn’t - where am I or what am doing here - as it should have been. It was - who the fuck’s seen me. I should have read the signs better.
