This post contains the main takeaways from the full length post “The Harm of Body Alterations“. Here, you will find the major themes from that post.
- You cannot improve nature – Whether you believe in a supreme deity whose infinite power and intellect specifically created our species. Whether you believe humans are the product of billions of years of evolution. A process involving the trial and error of innumerable selections of everything form hair, DNA, to genes. Humans are the result of something complex and beyond ourselves which makes us, our bodies included, special.
- Boredom – We spend time researching, planning, finding, scouting, and getting the alteration done. Boredom in the form of chasing the next high. It is always on to the next and the next and the next.
- Filling a void – thinking if I just get this, then I will be happy. If only I had this done, then I would be complete. An idea, conscious or unconscious, of looking for that next to fill a void.
- Dislike of self – Many people do not like their bodies or themselves or try to cover something up. Body alterations cannot ever provide anything but a temporary solution.
- You are unique and special – You cannot possibly be any more unique. Think of random sequences and series of events had to happen and take place in order to bring you to your present state. Of all humans, think of the chance coincidences that had to happen to make you, wonderful, beautiful, you.
You must look within
- Alteration cannot fix your self-image – You are amazing in your present form. If you cannot appreciate that, no amount of tattoos, plastic surgery, or other body alteration will ever change that. Your happiness comes from within. This brings me to the main reason why I experience a natural revulsion to any alteration. Because it is symptomatic of modernity to constantly seek answers in the wrong places.
- Hiding who we are with masks – There is an overwhelming sense that we lack something or need that mask to hide who we are. The sense that we can be satisfied if only we get X or Y done. Feeling we are missing something that can be satisfied if we just perform X or have Y done.
- Seeking to fill a void in the wrong places – A constant desire to fill a void with the wrong things because you are filling it with the superficial. As a result, you are never complete. You never fill it. It’s never done.
- We must accept ourselves – We must accept our size, our hair, our eyes, our nose, our strength, whatever the shape of our head is, to our ability in athletics or mathematics and beyond. It doesn’t matter, you are who you are, and you have to accept and embrace that.
- Individuality comes from internal not external – By seeking uniqueness outside yourself, you will only end up imitating others and become a copy.
- You cannot be duplicated or copied – You are the most unique thing in existence.
- A false image presented by companies – Much of the world presented to us has been created by companies for profit.
- Following others – The best way to do this is to truly discover yourself. It cannot be in anything external, which inevitably ends up looking like, acting like, talking like, so many other people. Copy of copies of copies of copies of copies.