Ego

I recently watched a movie called Revolver by a gentleman by the name of Guy Ritchie(Lock, Stock, and two smoking barrels, Snatch) which included, among other actors, Jason Statham (if you've seen the other two movies you'll know that this is a BIG SURPRISE). The movie was well done as usual, and Statham puts on a very good performance as Jake Green, a freshly released, falsely accused criminal. During his time spent in prison, he meets two men in the cells surrounding him, being in solitary confinement however... restricts all of their communication to writing in books that are handed out by twin brothers. On the day Mr. Green and his compadres are supposed to escape however, Jake awakes to find that he's been abandoned by his mentors. They proceed to clean him out of all the money in his home, after leaving him with the knowledge of how to get it all back.

However, this post is not a review of Revolver but rather an elaboration on one of it's themes. That theme being the human ego, and how it controls and manipulates us all. As stated in the movie (and the tagline), the human ego is the closest and most discreet enemy one can know. Disguising itself as your thoughts, and weaning you on it's logic. Two characters in the movie are utterly controlled by their ego's, yet by the end of the movie only Mr. Green has overcome it. Upon finishing the movie, I have since been keen to find out what the ego is exactly, and what actions it triggers. After some thought, and watching examples in the movie, I believe that the ego's biggest need is satisfaction, and the comfort of knowing that you're better than someone, and wanting to defeat them when they challenge you. The biggest battle ground for the ego in this day and age? Simple, The Internet. There is a running joke among select semi-underground internet communities that there are no women on the internet, and while this may not be true, I believe that this statement is made due to the many arguments made on comment sections of articles and posts that generally end in word battles among ignorant pencil pushers. (I saw one man try to defend himself so far that the author[The Editor In Chief to Motor Trend Magazine] had to get involved to prove him wrong. Not only did the gnetlemen not comply and continue to argue that he was right, but the entire website grew immediately out of his favor and he was most likely banned as he hasn't been seen since.)

The biggest threat to Internet "tough guys"? Why, the troll of course. Not to make it sound obvious and make you feel stupid (I acknowledge that not everyone is keen to interent terminology) but allow me to enlighten you. An internet troll isn't some big scaly green monster, but rather someone who writes or posts something in the intent of creating an internet word battle. The troll is also subject to ego though, especially if he participates in the battle with the intention of proving everyone wrong (thought their original statements generally are illogical)

Honor can often be associated with the human ego as well. It's really simple, just replace the word Honor with Ego and tah-dah you're all set to go.





PRO TIP: In the time I've written this, three people have sneezed into their hands and continued to type on their computers. WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER USING PUBLIC COMPUTERS IF YOU DDON'T ALREADY