Masks

First off, I love Oscar Wilde. I think he was a brilliant playwright who wrote phenomenal pieces of art. I think this stood out to me a lot because I have mixed feelings about it so I spent a lot of time thinking about it, especially in light of our studies of the Holocaust and our brief look at Milgram's experiment (we'll go further in depth into that next week). The questions that arise for me from this-- Is this true? Do we put on masks in order to "be ourselves"? I wonder what I would be like if I were placed in front of a shocking machine and told to shock another person. I want to think that I would be empathetic, that I would say, "No! That's a life! Someone is in pain! I can't do this." But I think most people want to think that. I think, psychologically, it would be interesting to talk to those who participated in Milgram's experiment AFTER the fact--it seems to be that these are the structures that allow for evil to occur--this kind of displacing of responsibility. I wonder if there have been times in my life where I have displaced responsibility.