Hidden characters

The protagonist's titular antisocial act in Crime and Punishment leads to much discussion of his theory regarding "ordinary" and "extraordinary" people, a philosophy that seems an almost perfect restatement of Nietzsche's over-man decades before Nietzsche formulated his own theories. Of course, most of the characters in the novel recognize this theory as absurd and dangerous (upon declaring that he wanted "the right", Sofya Semyonovna says, "The right? The right to kill?", clearly horrified), and I think most people in reality would respond similarly.

But the truth is that most of us, I think, do subscribe to this theory in more subtle formulations. We refer to "the masses", the unthinking mob of the common populace who are more animal than human and react rather than act, always according to patterns that can be predicted and manipulated. We refer to "people" as if they are some quantifiable other that we imply to be below us -- we think, other people may be like that, but we're better, smarter, more honest, more moral, more caring, more pragmatic, or whatever fits the needs of the moment. We do it almost without thinking, because it's both an integral part of our culture and, if some research is to be believed (that which has been amusingly coined "the monkeysphere"), our genetics.

According to the research, a human being can only conceptualize as individual persons with actual personalities and character and hopes and dreams and fears about one hundred fifty individuals. Everyone beyond that is simply people, faceless and identity-less and dehumanized.

The point of this post is not that to condemn such behavior or even to rationalize it. I do condemn it, and think we have to strive against it as best we can (if it is genetic, then we're fighting an unwinnable battle -- but as anyone's who read my writings will know, I don't give a damn about the odds for success).

My point is that there are persons who, because of this cultural phenomenon, don't declare themselves to be above the masses but actually embrace the mob and attempt to become a part of it. They suborn their individual identity in the hopes of finding purpose, or friends, or hope, or whatever, and conceal their actual characters and personalities and dreams and fears because they feel that society wants them to. Of course that's all bullshit, but people do it nonetheless. Sometimes I think I would like to get to know such people, help them draw out the real person beneath the faceless mask -- but I'm not a people person by any means, and not willing to go to the effort in any case.

But I think that such a person would make an interesting character for a story or something, not as the central focus (except perhaps for a short story) but as a side-plot connecting thematically to a larger work about identity or ethics or whatever. (My current projects don't have room for such a device, but in the future, who knows?)