confessional paper.

-Reality v. the Tragic
“A man can certainly avoid facing tragic reality by imagining himself as somehow different than the being he truly is, but only at the cost of turning himself into something unrecognizable” –Michel Onfray, ‘Atheist Manifesto’. This quote best embodies our present-day society. It identifies the defense mechanism people use to shield themselves from the “tragic reality” that is their life. It seems now that the possibility for an individual to become so submerged in their created persona that they lose grasp of their true character is all too fathomable. What is it that drives man to hide behind himself in what he believes to be a more acceptable and likeable façade? Why is it that man can hold back so much of his true self to the public eye, yet sit in a tiny space and confess the deepest of his sins to a complete stranger? When man confesses, are they confessing the sins of their glorified exterior or the raw sins of their suppressed reality? Man has come to believe that their reality is all too tragic and that they must mask themselves within their true being to the point of becoming unrecognizable.

-An Act of Confession vs. An Act of Self Destruction
“I decide to show this or that part of the truth, which isn’t necessarily the whole story, it’s just what I decide to give you”. –Patrick Hayes. The following is the philosophy by which man lives strictly. It begins to question our knowledge of how well we believe we are acquainted with another being versus how well we really are acquainted with their true self. It shows how man can control just how much of his personal-self he wishes to expose and with that, just how much of his personal sins he wishes to remain secretive. Every being can selectively choose what it is they desire to be perceived as by attaining full control of those two variables.

-Man Has Become a Confessing Animal
“The obligation to confess is so deeply ingrained in us, that we no longer perceive it as the effect of a power that constrains us; on the contrary it seems that truth, lodged in our most secret nature, demands only to surface” –Foucault. The quote shows the degree to which the meaning and sensation of confession has come to evolve over time. Confession used to be perceived as the release of an unmentionable power that burdened and constrained us from living our desired ‘pure’ life. Present day, the act of confessing is so common in our daily lives that it now seems to be of second nature. Man now feels obliged to confess the wrongdoings of their daily life by reporting it to the mass media or mass-networking sites. Confession now signifies a daily routine worked into our day-to-day lives, that instead of being optional, has almost become demanded of us to do so. The previously sacred art of confession has now become a routine over-exposed release.