‘We are just energies and perceptions; all we carry with ourselves is a persona created by the society that is presented to us as our identity.’ – Jim Carrey. This line has always been intriguing to me.
Jim Carrey, popularly known for his impeccable acting skills in the movie ‘The Mask’, believes that there is no meaning to any action taken by us. When he started working on the movie ‘The Man on the Moon’ as Andy Kaufman, he headed towards an identity crisis, which led to an epiphany. He stressed over the fact that as an actor, when he plays a particular character and decides to immerse himself within their existence, he realized that his own was pretty thin to begin with. He felt this separation, causing him to ask himself who he really was, and whether he really exists. Or is he just a relative mass of manifestation of consciousness, that appears and gives him ideas. Was he just given name, a religion, a nationality which he bunched into something that is supposed to resemble a personality? He emphasized that it didn’t exist, that none of that stuff, if really drilled down to, is real.
An idea would suggest that Jim Carrey is not in the healthiest state of mind but isn’t this how the social dogmas are supposed to hold us back? Imprison us in the box of societal norms and lazily label the messenger as conservative. The only desire Jim Carrey has is to ‘free people from concern’.
Today, we project ourselves as created avatars who are trying to fulfil the ideas of ‘Us’ as per other’s requirements, an objective every being is trying to live up to. I believe we get to choose our own characters in life, just the way Jim gets to choose his character in a movie. As the protagonists of our own stories, we have complete control over who we are, which means we can consciously create the avatar that makes us happiest. It goes without saying that we do not have an absolute control over who we are since our DNA and upbringing play a vital role, but I think life is less about finding one’s self, and more about creating one’s self.
Don’t we all want to do certain things without having the idea of ‘us’ in it? I believe that the more we detach from our egos and thoughts, the happier we will be.
-Jatin Lalwani
The Endeavour Editorial Club 