Optical Illusions
When I was young I was fascinated by an artistic feature in some Maltese churches called “trompe-l’oeil”. In order to save money on cupolas the parishes involved would often commission an artist to paint an optical illusion which would suggest to the persons inside that the church actually had a fantastic cupola above the altar. The trick, of course, was to get the right perspective. Most of the artists opted for a perspective from the congregation’s point of view but if you were underneath it or to the left or right of it the cupola looked a bit warped and the illusion was destroyed.
In today’s world, where image is everything, the concept of optical illusions has progressed into an art form which, although sometimes amusing, is very often a danger to oneself and the community at large. It starts on a personal level when we use cosmetics and cosmetic surgery to look “better”. It continues in the food we eat which, unless bought fresh, includes many additives to make it look “right”. It also permeates all levels of the digital world with photoshopped and edited images and words to give a particular twist to what we are watching or to trick us out of our money. We all have been receiving phishing mails which look exceptionally authentic and which urge us to give away our banking details.
Unfortunately for us, this urge to deceive is prevalent in politics too. At the moment we have various cases where the Corona virus is being made to look harmless by some head of states, endangering the lives of their fellow citizens and undermining the work of hospital staff. Other politicians, caught with their pants down so to speak, are trying to give their bad behaviour a new spin, blaming their mistakes on alcohol like Mr. Strache, or giving contorted explanations which make no sense like Mr. Cummings, Boris Johnson’s advisor. Still others are victims of their own sense of hubris like
Mr. Kurz. That visit to the Kleinwalsertal backfired spectacularly as people gathered to greet him without masks on. An unnecessary trip which showed us how a Chancellor, who is supposedly media-savvy, can make terrible blunders when trying to exploit situations for cheap visuals. I do admit I had a good laugh when President Van der Bellen was caught outside the curfew imposed on restaurants. It reminded me of my teenage years when my mother would wait for me in the living room to come home by 10.00 p.m. or else! We are all human and we all make mistakes but we should learn from them. Some people, however, are doomed to repeat them either because they are ignorant or cannot admit wrongdoing even to themselves. They are so concerned with their image that it overshadows their thinking. This obsession about how things look or sound instead of dealing with facts and content is, at the moment, nowhere more visible than in the USA.
In a world in which we are constantly being bombarded with modified images and words, it pays to listen to René Descartes, one of my favourite philosophers. In his renowned essay “Discourse on the Method” published in 1637, he argues that the senses can be deceiving and that, ultimately, it is careful thinking that will lead us to who we really are and not what we see, hear, feel, taste or smell. So, when you hear or see something on TV, on the internet or in a paper, you should always look at who commissioned that piece of information, who edited it and, if possible, check multiple sources on the issue at hand. This is especially so when what is being proposed is dangerous and detrimental to your own health or well-being. I myself tend to take everything with a pinch of salt even though my doctor insists that salt is not good for me.