the mask as how to fit in society: from Preface to Awareness Through Movement

From Awareness Through Movement, by Moshe Feldenkrais.

Page 4: “The essential flaw of education as we know it today is that it is based on ancient and often primitive practices whose equalizing purpose was neither conscious nor clear.”

Page 6: “The education provided by society operates in two directions at once.

It suppresses every nonconformist tendency through penalties of withdrawal of support

And simultaneously imbues the individual with values that force him to overcome and discard spontaneous desires.

These conditions cause the majority of adults today to live behind a mask, a mask of personality that the individual tries to present to others and to himself.

Every aspiration and spontaneous desire is subjected to stringent internal criticism lest they reveal the individual’s organic nature.

Such aspirations and desires arouse anxiety and remorse and the individual seeks to suppress the urge to realize them.

The only compensation that makes life durable despite these sacrifices in the satisfaction derived from society’s recognition of the individual who achieves its definition of success.

THE NEED FOR CONSTANT SUPPORT FROM ONE’S FELLOWS IS SO GREAT THAT THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE SPEND THE LARGER PART OF THEIR LIVES FORTIFYING THEIR MASKS.

Repeated success is essential to encourage the individual to persist in this masquerade.”

(Separation of sentences into individual paragraphs, and capitalization via me, Chris Elms. In the book, this is all one paragraph and sentences are capitalized the usual way, but none is all caps the way I made THE NEED FOR CONSTANT SUPPORT….)

Page 7:

“The great majority of people live active and satisfactory enough lives behind their masks to enable them to stifle more or less painlessly any emptiness they may feel whenever they stop and listen to their heart.”

link: Awareness Through Movement: Easy-to-Do Health Exercises to Improve Your Posture, Vision, Imagination, and Personal Awareness