Facebook: The True-Self Free Zone

There's a concept among old fashioned Christians like the late Thomas Merton that there is "a true and a false self." The false self is the irritable little sinner and the true self turns out to be a sweet and Christlike being yearning to unite with God.

And as Ernest Hemingway might say: "It's pretty to think so."

This nice conceptualization of your own true self is nicer than what mostly passes for Christianity these days when the followers of The Prince of Peace have morphed into a right-wing morality enforcement squad preaching hatred for anything that is fun or different or French.

Since the good Christians are on a moral us-versus-them crusade, we are left with the secular religion of  Facebook, which encourages the projection of a false self that is sweet and Christlike. Even if you are a non-believer, which is the politically correct term for today's heathens, you can only succeed on Facebook by pretending to be a social media version of Mary's Little Lamb.

You put up cute photos of puppies and kittens and all your so-called "Friends" will hit the like button quicker than Pavlov's dog.

But don't put up a photo of Pavlov or his dog as that will disturb the denial of reality that is the hallmark of the Facebook-approved persona.

And if you like bears, only post photos of cute little bear cubs. A full-size bear, even in a benign pose, will not get a single like because adult bears are scary and your Facebook friends do not want to see anything that might frighten them or knock them out of their complacent denial of reality.

The harsh realities of life are off-topic among Facebook friends, even those who claim to be Bob Dylan fans. (Do they ever listen to the words or just mindlessly hum the tunes?) So you end up with a social media viewpoint that is a Disney version of the Magic Kingdom ("Happiest Place in All the World") without even a Big Bad Wolf to mar the sense that we are all wonderful people having a wonderful time in a wonderful world where nothing can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong ...