WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET
April 17, 2003

I had a thought yesterday as I drove up along side a large SUV with its window rolled down and its driver peering over at me: What if, as humans, we could voluntarily see through things? I am talking about X-ray vision. I am talking about super-human powers. I am talking about a society whose values and capitalistic ideas were dependent on the fact that nothing could be hidden from the naked eye (excuse the pun). As I sat with my own window rolled down, there were no panes of glass separating me from my highway counterpart. My defenses were down, and air and clothes were the only things separating her from me.

I am not trying to be crude, and I am not trying to be perverted. Most warm-blooded beings have the fantasy of being able to envision someone they find sexually appealing in the buff. I am no exception. However, more than sexual gratification would be gained by the ability see anyone in all of his or her glory. Needless to say, there would be plenty of times when someone would wish for blindness as less desirable human shapes and forms are confronted, but with each good must come bad.

How would society change when transparency is the norm and privacy is rare? I have a good guess that we would be closer as a race and less suspicious of diverse peoples. For years, nudists all over the world have discovered and enjoyed the “freedom” of being one with nature and one with each other. Barriers are ripped down as clothes are left at doorsteps and beach entrances. I have experienced this strange liberty on a few occasions, and each time I was stunned to realize that I viewed the world differently as my bare skin was exposed to the world. I began to grasp the fact that nakedness and exposition equates to truth. When a room is filled with naked men or women, “what you see is what you get.” No one is able to hide balding hair, a sagging ass, a larger belly, or other unique traits. But one must question, in a naked society, would these “deformities” be magnified or unnoticeable, for it is easier to hide behind layers of cloth than it is to shed the layers of superficiality.

Personally, if I was jettisoned across the vast expanse of space and inserted into a culture of naked people, how would I react? Like Adam in the garden, I would seek a fig leaf (a large one) and cover myself, even though I would stick out in the crowd as the one person hiding something. Yet, I would be hiding more than my loins – I would be hiding aspects of myself that I chose not to share with the general public. Nevertheless, we do live in a clothed world where it is normal and perfectly healthy for a person to withhold different aspects from others. The danger lies in what you choose to expose and what you choose to conceal, because with either you can create an image (clothed or unclothed) of yourself that is artificial or one that is real.

As I sat idling next the SUV, I instinctively wanted to roll up my window and shield myself from her ability to see into my truck cab. Fortunately, the light turned green and I was saved from the momentary psychological dilemma. Even so, I am faced with situations on a constant basis where I must choose whether to display aspects of myself or block them from view.

Why do you draw the blinds? Why do you close the bathroom stall door? Why do you tint your cars windows or install a privacy fence? Perhaps you want to hide. There could also be a driving need to be isolated from others in order to rediscover your self. The reasons are many, but the result is the same.