The Pinocchio Complex

I’m a real boy. Pinocchio pleas with Papa Gipetto to acknowledge him as more than just a wooden object. There is more to this than meets the eye. On the surface, we have a classic children’s tale about a wooden boy becoming human. Underneath that? Well to put it simply Pinocchio’s story can be viewed as a critique or metaphor of society’s forced norms, or of the otherization of those who don’t get in line. I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start slow.

Society is always sending mixed signals. You’ve probably seen ad campaigns, heard songs, or found some other type of media that tells you to express yourself. However whenever this is put into practice, don’t go looking for sympathy from the people and institutions that urged you to do what makes you happy. You will go wanting because our society is consistently hostile towards those who rock the boat. From the schools, to the streets, and all the way up to Washington D.C. The kid in high school who dresses strangely and does things that don’t fit in, well, to put it simply nobody is celebrating his/her eccentricities. The religious person who takes their opinion on God to the street, they are labeled a crazy zealot, or a “Jesus Freak”. In Washington, the politicians who break the mold (there are even fewer than you think) are not hailed for crafting their own view, they are rather put into a category all their own of radical ______ist. Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich are the best examples you’ll find. Ralph Nader is the only politician that hates corporations and still gets attention from the media. Kucinich has at times such off beat ideas as a Department of Peace. What a hippie! That’s what they shout on O’Reilly Factor. He probably smokes pot. That’s what they whisper in the senate chamber. It seems that the iconoclast is not as beloved as our society would like you to believe.

Back to Pinocchio for a second, I wonder why both the Disney version and the original story end with him becoming a “real” boy. Why is that viewed as the ultimate happy ending? What is so great about Pinocchio losing the thing that most defined him? Is homogenization a good thing? Gentrification? When we view these things in a vacuum we say that they are negative, but when we actually see them applied we view them as positive. From the moment he was born, not only did Pinocchio lie and claim to be real, he wished for it as well. The first part is what’s truly tragic about all of this. The other, in this case the wooden boy, immediately tries to shed his unique traits. Differences are not appreciated, they are apprehended. Outsiders are not welcomed they are warned. If you don’t see some part of yourself in the tale of Pinocchio then you are either a liar or you aren’t human. Think about any time you’ve acted against your true self for the sake of acceptance. Think about the time you wore something for the sake of fitting what others wanted from you. Starting to get the picture? We are all Pinocchio. In this example, there are no “real boys”. There is only society’s vision of what real is. Next to the quixotic figures who make up utopia, we are all wooden by comparison. The time has come to give up on the concept of real. It is time to embrace being wooden and imperfect.

Embracing our imperfections and idiosyncrasies is the only way to achieve happiness. Society will always have a view that excludes you in some way. Whether you are too tall, too fat, too skinny, too dumb, too smart, etc. There is no way to become real. We are left with two choices. Peel off all of our flawed wooden shell, and hope what lies underneath is real enough, or embrace the fact that we are not what society wants us to be, and work on improving what we’ve been given. The drive to become “real” enough is a drive towards death and self-hatred. Eventually this can be projected on others. Anyone who is even more wooden than you are can be blamed for your inability to reach perfection. Suddenly you’re now talking about turning the wooden people into kindling. During World War II more than 6 million people were deemed not real enough and were put to death across Europe. In China even more perished, their deaths justified in the same context. Why? What is it that allows entire nations of people to be swept up in a drive to perfection, or even some sort of confirmation or declaration of perfection? The leaders of these movements can be seen to have long wooden noses indeed if they truly believe that their goals were attainable. That is the sad truth of the matter, the people who value perfection the most are often the most imperfect. Last I checked, a perfect being would not seek to destroy life. And thus once again, even in Nazi Germany, we are shown the blonde blue eyed superman, the real titan who stands tall among the wooden masses. Where exactly were these Uber-real boys? Nowhere. They were nothing but drawings on posters. They do not exist. They cannot exist because perfection cannot exist. To say otherwise would be to lie, and as Pinocchio can teach us, the liars will be exposed one way or another.

I think that one problem that certainly plagues us in the modern age is the behavior of our leaders and the leading members of our society. Famous people are too concerned about sponsorships and profits to jeopardize those things with anything out of the ordinary. The best way to sum up this change? Think back to the 60s. John Lennon. Lennon says what he thinks. What he really thinks. It seems like such a novel idea today, that a celebrity would actually be willing to have a real opinion that they’ll share with everyone. Lennon was vocal on seemingly every major issue of the day. Today try and think of someone in a similar position who is nearly as willing to embrace their status as an outsider. Lennon realized he was wooden, realized that we were all wooden, and embraced it. In that way, he proved to be more real than anyone else. Who is the Lennon of today? There is none. It’s a sad truth, but everyone who has the platform to speak up, is too afraid to do so. For a myriad of reasons. Those who do, are mocked fairly openly. This has to change. It is time for everyone to accept that the standards of perfection are wrong. In my mind, imperfection is perfection. We must define for ourselves what being “real” is. Regardless of what Disney, and everyone says, I am content to remain a wooden boy. Refuse to become homogenized and gentrified.