On appearance in American culture

Recently, I was told by my yoga teacher that I was concentrating too much on (external) appearance, and that the "form" ought to be sensed from the inside.  This was definitely something to be concerned with and reflect on.

As one has not shopped in a department store (and rarely ever in downtown Seattle, unless if I absolutely have to), I wondered if this could be true (and to what extent).

True, often I believe that Americans--including myself--are obsessed with appearance. Not just concerned with it.  And we have exported it, "the, American way of life," around the world to the great detriment of the planet.

"They want our way of life," we gush in self-admiring content.  "Our democracy.  Our freedom.  Our affluence."

After World War II, "the American way of life" gained the ascendancy, with the great consumerist society and its accompanying technological leaps the envy of the rest of the world.

We have to keep stoking the fires of Madison Avenue advertising, shopping on-line and off-, 5G networks. Throwing money at Comcast, Verizon...

And keep up with Seattle "cool":   coffee-shops, clubs, stores, buses, airports, gyms, churches, and museums where we can let everyone know how interesting (or uninteresting) our lives are and how cool we are (and uncool others can be).   If we're alone in a crowd, we can always use our our Iphones and smartphones to announce to the world, or at least anyone within 50 meters of us, our importance.  Even if others don't really want to know

And as for physical appearance...

Hollywood movie stars, especially women, rarely have careers after the age of 40 or so. Unlike women like Judi Dench or Vanessa Redgrave--whose beauty as they age radiates from an inner sense, American women are not allowed to age gracefully (gay men, take note:  I think you've learned the wrong lessons from the experience of straight women) and continue to be held in esteem and given decent roles.   Hence, botox, face-lifts, and the like...

We'll see if Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, or Jennifer Lawrence are ever able or willing to (try to) take on roles that are not varying shades of themselves, the contemporary all-American woman.   Lady Macbeth, Mary Tyrone, Blanche Dubois, Hedda Gabler (at least Jane Fonda in her time dared).

Ditto for their male American counterparts, most of whom could not act themselves out of a box even if they had to.

* * * * *

Appearance is a major concern of a good part of the world, and certainly of all Western countries.  It is an inescapable fact of life.  It would appear that China is more materialistic than even the most capitalistic countries on the face of the planet.

But the fact also is that the United States is the foremost defender of the capitalistic system with its emphasis on the profit motive to the exclusion of all other values.   The U.S. also is the world's largest single economy (although the GDP of the European Union is larger) and military power par excellence.

* * * * *

If it makes me look good, I will feel good.  Ergo, my happiness and well-being depend on my looking good (botox, SUV, going out to the coolest clubs...).  And to some extent, looking good will give one a rush, a temporary feeling of well-being but not an inner peace or happiness.   Maybe that is what a spiritual life is supposed to nurture.

* * * * *

from The New York Times (October 20, 2013),

"Lessons From Living in London"

The natives’ reticence, and the prevalence of small buildings instead of high-rise apartment complexes, promote a feeling of self-containment, even isolation. In New York you live in one another’s pockets and in one another’s faces; your business is their business. In London, people keep themselves to themselves, as the expression goes, and this can feel either liberating or lonely.

I could stroll the paths at Kensington Gardens, or jog past the statue of Prince Albert all the way to Hyde Park, and have only the most glancing interaction with another human being, even though those places were full of them. So I spent a lot of time lost in thought. It was freeing to feel so anonymous, so unfettered — but sometimes it made the heart feel a little empty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/travel/lessons-from-living-in-london.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

I wonder if the London of my youth is still the same, despite the American invasion of Europe of the past decades.  Will the preference for understatement, irony, and civility have given way to loudness, extroversion, exaggeration, narcissism, and unabashed exhibitionism?  

Will the supposed "cold-fish" have given way to a smiling, chirpy ersatz American talking non-stop without nary a pause for breath except at the very end to say "good-bye"?

* * * * *

The emperor has no clothes:   most of American life is concerned only with transactions (buying/selling) of surface appearances.

  

On that there is a social consensus, the driving force of most lives.   ("Keep up the appearances, of 'normality,' and do like everyone else").


One who dares to think differently and who speaks and acts from some other basis is considered "weird."
That person may, in fact, be more "alive" than others. External appearance may be less important than "seeing," "hearing," "touching"...  
  

The inner life ("core") for many if not most people is only incidentally (or coincidentally) touched over a lifetime. 

"evening star" of franz von stuck, in the museum villa von stuck, on loan to the frye art museum, seattle, nov. 1, 2013-feb. 2,2014

* * * * *



It is true:   I don't have much of a spiritual life and I occupy myself much as others in keeping myself distracted.


* * * * *

The dreams one has at night may actually be more important than what one does during one's waking hours, at least from a psychic point of view.