connive
Iberian Prince
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⚠︎ THE DANGERS OF LOOKSMAXXING ⚠︎
▶ INTRO
I have made a previous short post talking about how the mainstream media demonizes looksmaxxing based on different methods that have been found in the looksmaxxing ideology. Whether it’s the use of steroids, bonesmashing (known cope), etc. However, there is a way bigger issue with the looksmaxxing ideology that extends way farther than the methods used within the community, and it is way more harmful and self-destructive than any of these methods. I want to preface this by saying I know that looksmaxxing has become a broad topic that encapsulates the improvement of various areas. This is mainly to articulate the importance of balancing the improvement of looks with the improvement of other factors of life and not allowing looks to be the ontological center of self-improvement.
▶ THE ISSUEI have seen many people who take the looksmaxxing ideology in its purest form. I’ve seen people who unironically believe that if someone is unable to reach peak aesthetics, if they have a chronic illness, or are subhuman, they should rope. This post is directed towards the people who genuinely believe that people who fall under these categories would be better off ending their lives than continuing to live the life that they have.
Even if someone has a severe disadvantage in the world based on their appearance, a chronic condition, etc. Why is it impossible for this disadvantaged person to find a reason for existence outside of the looksmaxxing ideology? I’ve seen people argue this with: your quality of life would be so low it wouldn’t be worth living, you will never amount to a girl loving you, etc. We must ask ourselves, why are these things viewed as the telos of life? Socrates was considered very ugly by the standards of the ancient Greeks, yet he is one of the most revered philosophers in all of human history, and he argued that the telos of life wasn’t appearance, romantic success, etc. He argued that the telos of life was care for the soul, self-knowledge, and living an examined life. So we must ask, why is it impossible to find the telos in things other than appearance or relationships?
Even if someone has a severe disadvantage in the world based on their appearance, a chronic condition, etc. Why is it impossible for this disadvantaged person to find a reason for existence outside of the looksmaxxing ideology? I’ve seen people argue this with: your quality of life would be so low it wouldn’t be worth living, you will never amount to a girl loving you, etc. We must ask ourselves, why are these things viewed as the telos of life? Socrates was considered very ugly by the standards of the ancient Greeks, yet he is one of the most revered philosophers in all of human history, and he argued that the telos of life wasn’t appearance, romantic success, etc. He argued that the telos of life was care for the soul, self-knowledge, and living an examined life. So we must ask, why is it impossible to find the telos in things other than appearance or relationships?
▶ THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF PURE LOOKSMAXXING
Looksmaxxing at its purest and unbalanced form, ultimately becomes self-devouring. Its very nature becomes monomaniacal. From an existentialist's view, looks become your reason for existence, and every other aspect of life becomes irrelevant.
This is why a balance is not optional, but rather essential. Without a healthy and balanced view of this ideology, it ultimately becomes an unhealthy obsession that is detrimental to the pursuer’s well-being, whether spiritually, mentally, emotionally, existentially, etc. In order to pursue the looksmaxxing ideology in a healthy manner, it needs to be looked at as one aspect of self-improvement instead of being viewed as the ontological center. It is necessary to be integrated with other pursuits in life, such as epistemology, metaphysics, spirituality, character development, philosophy, etc.
It is undeniably true that society judges based on one’s appearance. However, initial perception is fragile and does not last forever. A good physical appearance causes people to be perceived as more intelligent and having better character traits, for example. These are just a few of the benefits that are associated with looksmaxxing. We must ask ourselves, how is it beneficial to be perceived as intelligent if you are not, or to be perceived as having a good character if it is something you lack? It is idiotic to take measures in order to fraud a perception when you lack the substance to back up said perceptions.
We lose sleep over the way we look in photos, our bodies, our faces, but not our character. We never ask ourselves questions like, “How do I treat people in my day-to-day life?, How do I act when I am annoyed?, etc.” We never question our arrogance, lack of respect, or our attitude. This is because we can cover bad character with charisma, confidence, and an attractive face. People won’t even realize your bad character, but this won’t last forever. You may be able to fraud a high intellect, or a good character, for a while. However, the mask and fraud you put on always slips. The perception of intelligence cracks and shatters under the weight of intellectual vacancy. If you are unable to provide intellectual material for a conversation, ultimately, your perception, like clay, will be molded from being perceived as intelligent to being perceived as incompetent. I have seen this countless times within my own life. When someone is unable to provide anything to a conversation that makes me think even for a second, I dismiss them as unintelligent.
I will add that it is important to keep in mind that this could also be a manipulation tactic. Some people like to present themselves as unintelligent; this naturally exploits human weakness and makes us lower our defenses. You can play stupid, and people will naturally view you as unable to pull off complex schemes; this plays off of other people's egos. People do not view a retard as a threat. This is where your own arrogance bites you in the ass. If you do not perceive someone as a threat, then you will never see it coming. Don’t be naive and ultimately dismiss someone because of this, or lower your guard around them. Law 21: Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker – Seem Dumber Than Your Mark, 48 Laws of Power
Looks are a great tool for shaping a first impression, like a molder’s hand, they set the mold, yet the actual qualities determine whether that mold cracks or warps under the heat of the oven. Eventually, your true qualities will be shown, and even though looks are a great tool, they do not incapacitate human reason.
This is why I argue that looks are not to be seen as of utmost importance, but rather on the same playing field as the inner psyche.
This is why a balance is not optional, but rather essential. Without a healthy and balanced view of this ideology, it ultimately becomes an unhealthy obsession that is detrimental to the pursuer’s well-being, whether spiritually, mentally, emotionally, existentially, etc. In order to pursue the looksmaxxing ideology in a healthy manner, it needs to be looked at as one aspect of self-improvement instead of being viewed as the ontological center. It is necessary to be integrated with other pursuits in life, such as epistemology, metaphysics, spirituality, character development, philosophy, etc.
It is undeniably true that society judges based on one’s appearance. However, initial perception is fragile and does not last forever. A good physical appearance causes people to be perceived as more intelligent and having better character traits, for example. These are just a few of the benefits that are associated with looksmaxxing. We must ask ourselves, how is it beneficial to be perceived as intelligent if you are not, or to be perceived as having a good character if it is something you lack? It is idiotic to take measures in order to fraud a perception when you lack the substance to back up said perceptions.
We lose sleep over the way we look in photos, our bodies, our faces, but not our character. We never ask ourselves questions like, “How do I treat people in my day-to-day life?, How do I act when I am annoyed?, etc.” We never question our arrogance, lack of respect, or our attitude. This is because we can cover bad character with charisma, confidence, and an attractive face. People won’t even realize your bad character, but this won’t last forever. You may be able to fraud a high intellect, or a good character, for a while. However, the mask and fraud you put on always slips. The perception of intelligence cracks and shatters under the weight of intellectual vacancy. If you are unable to provide intellectual material for a conversation, ultimately, your perception, like clay, will be molded from being perceived as intelligent to being perceived as incompetent. I have seen this countless times within my own life. When someone is unable to provide anything to a conversation that makes me think even for a second, I dismiss them as unintelligent.
I will add that it is important to keep in mind that this could also be a manipulation tactic. Some people like to present themselves as unintelligent; this naturally exploits human weakness and makes us lower our defenses. You can play stupid, and people will naturally view you as unable to pull off complex schemes; this plays off of other people's egos. People do not view a retard as a threat. This is where your own arrogance bites you in the ass. If you do not perceive someone as a threat, then you will never see it coming. Don’t be naive and ultimately dismiss someone because of this, or lower your guard around them. Law 21: Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker – Seem Dumber Than Your Mark, 48 Laws of Power
Looks are a great tool for shaping a first impression, like a molder’s hand, they set the mold, yet the actual qualities determine whether that mold cracks or warps under the heat of the oven. Eventually, your true qualities will be shown, and even though looks are a great tool, they do not incapacitate human reason.
This is why I argue that looks are not to be seen as of utmost importance, but rather on the same playing field as the inner psyche.
▶ WHY AN UNHEALTHY IMBALANCE IS PHILOSOPHICALLY DANGEROUS
If we disregard a healthy balance in the pursuit of improving our looks, this ultimately leads to a variety of unhealthy philosophical principles, whether you realize it or not. It leads to materialism, social Darwinism, egoism, and ultimately nihilism. If the telos of human life is reaching a certain bar of aesthetics, then life itself becomes meaningless for the people who are unable to reach that bar. Under this principle, we end up reducing existence to people’s physical traits like dimorphism, bone mass, and angularity; we disregard transcendent value and human dignity beyond the mirror.
Looksmaxxing as pure ideology becomes reductive in practice and nihilistic in conclusion.
Looksmaxxing as pure ideology becomes reductive in practice and nihilistic in conclusion.
▶ THE CORROSIVE VANITY OF UNBALANCED LOOKSMAXXING
When human aesthetics are viewed as the telos of life, this ultimately results in a narcissistic, prideful, and detrimental form of vanity. When you reach a certain bar of looks, naturally, you become prideful and narcissistic due to your achievement. If the telos of life is to mog, then we would become self-obsessed, or narcissistic, and if the obsession is about appearance, it is defined as vanity. This ultimately ends up in a detrimental form of vanity. If we hold this view, we would hold the belief that nothing matters unless it helps us mog. Under this telos, the most temporal and superficial aspect of life becomes our idol, and ultimately starves every other aspect of life.
▶ A BALANCED AND HEALTHY FORM OF LOOKSMAXXING
Looksmaxxing should be treated as one aspect of improving oneself, instead of being viewed as the singular telos. Aesthetic optimization is pursued with the integration of growth in the following categories: intellectual, spiritual, character, etc. With this integrated view, looks are seen as a powerful and meaningful tool, instead of being viewed as an idol. Maximizing appearance should not be pursued in order to escape nihilism, but to improve one’s quality of life, give back to the world, etc. Care for the body is virtuous but only when kept in proportion.
The result of looksmaxxing should not be dependent on the validation of others. It should create a humble confidence within us that acts as a tool in order to achieve self-mastery. The result of this self-mastery should allow us to benefit our own lives and the lives of others. First impressions are made within a tenth of a second to seven seconds, and we know that looks play a humongous factor in that. However, those impressions only stick when the qualities are actually present to back up those first impressions. With this balance, looksmaxxing changes from a self-destructive and harmful ideology to one that enhances one’s life and others' lives. It prevents peak aesthetics from becoming an idol and starving the other aspects of one’s life.
The result of looksmaxxing should not be dependent on the validation of others. It should create a humble confidence within us that acts as a tool in order to achieve self-mastery. The result of this self-mastery should allow us to benefit our own lives and the lives of others. First impressions are made within a tenth of a second to seven seconds, and we know that looks play a humongous factor in that. However, those impressions only stick when the qualities are actually present to back up those first impressions. With this balance, looksmaxxing changes from a self-destructive and harmful ideology to one that enhances one’s life and others' lives. It prevents peak aesthetics from becoming an idol and starving the other aspects of one’s life.
▶ CREDIT / SHOUT OUT
I want to give my IRL and mentor, @ALBOSS, some credit for giving me this initial perception. He told me once, "By looksmaxxing you are going to improve the way people perceive you, you are going to look, for example, more intelligent, but if you look the part, you ought to be the part. You can't look intelligent and then be a retard, that would make the whole purpose void."
@ALBOSS @Jason Voorhees I'd love to get feedback from you guys on this post.
