…It’s rare, for example, to see shoppers cutting each other off with their carts and waving their middle fingers.
The reason for this is obvious: when you have to look someone in the face you are confronted with your own responsibility to behave decently and to recognize your own humanity in the face of another human being.
And then there are metaphorical masks . . . such as anonymous commenters who keep their identity veiled precisely so they can launch verbal assaults for which they don’t have to take responsibility. I’ve heard of such things.
But aside from all of philosophical musings about masks, faces, and concealed identities, aren’t masks just creepy? I much prefer the days when villians stretched women’s pantyhose over their faces to distort their features — now that’s classy.
In his book The dominant man: The pecking order in human society, Humphry Knipe writes:
Vicious attacks and open mockery are usually confined to groups dominated by irresponsible adolescents and are all but non-existent in adult company. In adult groups, the vulnerable are often far less vulnerable than they feel.
