Here we go again. I just can’t seem to get enough of the “two-face” meme that seems to be circulating (see this, and this, and this) though I can’t be sure. Is it just because my interest in this phenomenon brings it more and more to my attention? (Rather like back in 2007, when I was considering purchase of a Prius and for awhile there I saw Priuses everywhere? Now, in 2015, they are in truth everywhere, but back then, not so, not yet.)

Or is it truly because this meme is going viral.

Here’s another story that plays on this meme, by Greg Palast:

A Tale of Two Cuomos

— in which we appear to learn that the elder Cuomo — who just died, hours after his son was sworn in for the second time — both used the left to forge his anti-nuclear credentials, and meanwhile, secretly, went against all that they stood for.

Good guy on the surface, bad guy underneath. That’s what the two-face meme portrays. But it got me to thinking, are we all not two-faced, at least in some sense? Or maybe I should say, many-faced? I know that I, especially when young, was acutely and self-consciously aware of all the masks I had to wear in my life in order to “get along” — and I called them “masks,” even back then, knowing they were not the real me. “Wife,” “mother,” “graduate student,” “friend,” “sister,” “child” — it seemed like every person I interacted with called forth something different in myself.

Luckily, I did recognize that there is a difference between the masks, or the roles, and the internal essence upon which they are all mere surface play. Or is there? Is there such a “thing” as an “essence”? One of my mentors, Gurdjieff, thought so; or I picked up that he did. I thought so, too. And still do; at least I operate that way now, assuming that my essence, or the center, the core of my “self” radiates in all directions, and that in any situation with an “other,” it subtly and unconsciously modulates in order to make the connection. No longer do I experience a two-facedness within myself, rather a sense of continuous harmonic modulation.

More and more, especially as I continue with chi kung and tai chi practice, the sense of my “be-ing” as energy flowing through space and time, rather than as a “substance” knocking around the world like a billiard ball . . .

But back to the two-faced meme: I do think it’s significant that this is the way some people are talking about what’s going on with “the cabal,” “the illuminati,” as well as certain folks that seem to be defrocking as we speak, e.g. Bill Cosby, Kevin Annett, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, and others, all for various reasons: the nice guy front masking something entirely different, and usually, shameful or dishonest, with self-serving intent. To use the meme “two-faces” may help those who continue to be naive and trusting in appearances to recognize that there are at least two stories being told, one conscious and intended, the other something else entirely.

This morning I was surfing around and came upon a discussion by what looks like a very smart (and smart-ass) crowd of young people, probably mostly male. Here’s an excerpt from that discussion.

A new level of ‘reverse psychology’ is now to the 4th magnitude.

For example, ABC agency posits A as their official story, knowing that you will believe B since they are liars. What they don’t realize, is that the smart fuckers know that ABC agency assumes this assumptions, hiding the truth even further. Therefore, what they said initially is ACTUALLY the truth.

But this only for the real smart fuckers. The REAL truth is not even A or B, but actually C.

Now what C is, is hard to know because we are trapped in this dualistic dialectic.

Haven’t you ever seen ‘a princess bride.? The poison scene.

Most of us old fuckers may still be working within the “dualistic dialectic,” but some of these young ones know better.