There is an interesting phenomenon that, to the best of my knowledge, has gone entirely unnoticed. Many methods of distorting one’s normal appearance are well known: dyeing hair red or green; tattoos—sometimes to the point of a truly grotesque distortion of the human form; mustaches in countless variations and configurations; beards reaching down to one’s crotch; and so on. Yet, amidst all this, a very distinct pattern emerges: no person of true talent, no genius, and no individual possessing extraordinary abilities—with the exception of financial acumen, and, in rare instances, a handful of artists—ever dyes their hair red or blue, or deliberately distorts their physical appearance. There is, as yet, no explanation for this pattern. Among those who actively engage in self-disfigurement, one finds no chess grandmasters, no renowned composers, poets, or writers, no celebrated scientists, and so forth.
Every individual within human society—and particularly within the sphere of mass media—possesses a sense of “selfhood”: an awareness of how they differ from the collective humanity around them, from the people living and walking alongside them. Such “partial selfhoods” are legion; indeed, some individuals harbor several of them simultaneously. This sense of selfhood—which operates primarily at a subconscious level—typically exerts a powerful influence on the psyche. Subconsciously, these individuals yearn to be original, to stand apart from the crowd; yet, they lack the requisite abilities, talents, or insight to recognize where their true potential lies and what aspects of themselves require cultivation. Consequently, the individual suffering from a deficit of genuine personal substance seeks to compensate for this void in the simplest, most primitive manner possible: through mere *form*. Hence the entire litany of absurdities involving hair-dyeing, tattooing, and the insertion of metal hardware into various body parts—from the nose down to the groin.
systemity 