The Vajra Parrot Squawks!

If there's no meaningful inner experience of life then what outlet have people got other than to fixate on the exterior world?

Hence people preen themselves like birds trying to attract a mate, pump themselves up, slim themselves down, change their skin colour, dye their hair, dress in Emperors' new clothes, affect a swagger. And for what?

What does it really achieve?

Maybe some momentary feeling of self-satisfaction. A couple of hours' security, cocooned from the relentless march of time and the reminder that one can't really postpone the inevitable. Maybe all the preening and pretty feathers will attract a partner to share in some meaningless mating rituals which might help to forget temporarily the fact that one is alone.

But does what you eat, what you wear, who you have sex with, what you own, what you listen to, where you're 'seen' (as nauseam) really say anything about you as an individual? Or give/substract value from your person depending on which boxes you can tick?

Some deluded people perpetrate the absurdity that, 'life's a catwalk'. The tragedy is that others are willing to believe it and want to lose themselves in this magical, fantasy land of glamour and ego-worship. In fact, they have to because the reality of the situation is they're so unsure of their own worth and identity that someone has to define it for them. This kind of life is pretty meaningless, when you consider it even for a moment, and is just an exercise in self-alienation. Just another fake, Photoshopped image taken as something real.

Looking after the body is a necessity. Caring for it is a duty. However,
worshipping it is insanity. Society is too obssessed with the exterior and ignorant of the mind. Its outward obsession drives it slowly mad and blind. The fashion and cosmetic industries are a symptom, not a cause of this malaise.

If people only put as much time into looking at their minds as their bodies then this neurotic obsession with image or loneliness or self-identity would simply fall away, with a lot of other negativities too, leaving people more equipped to live a happier, more authentic life. Many, it seems, are afraid to look within; maybe they fear they might see some Dorian Gray image of themselves, locked away in the depths of their subconscious, or are afraid that painful memories which have been pushed down and energetically 'forgotten' might re-emerge in all their unholy terror. Yet, concentrating instead on this ageing shell and the world it inhabits, conjurs up far more lasting and harmful demons.