Today in class, we watched a movie called "Gladiator"and i was thinking about about how people see him and how he really is. Maximus was a general who became a slave and was forced to fight to the death in an arena. As soon as he entered the arena he became a bloodthirsty killer defying the king at every turn, but outside, he was just a farmer. Maximus wasn't who everyone thought he was, but he was who he had to be to survive, if everyone thought he was some sort of pansy farmer then the crowds wouldn't have cared if the emperor killed him or not, then he would never get his revenge. when he wasn't on the battle field he made allies that would help him to help him obtain his ultimate goal of killing the emperor and the people would never want to team up with somebody who would probably stab him in the back so he could be his true self when he wasn't fighting, but he needed to adopt a persona that would help him survive so he could get what he wanted.
Maximus wasn't the only person who disguises his self, another person that does it is Brian Hugh Warner, better known as Marilyn Manson. Marilyn manson created his name form two famous people, actress Marilyn Monroe and ultiple murder convict Charles Manson, Which tells you a little bit about him. Marilyn Manson is a singer who sings "Shock Rock" and if you dont know what that is, heres an example
On stage Manson seems to be a hardcore punk rocker who doesn't really care about anything and has a F the world policy and never graduated grade 10, however if you get him off the stage, without thousand of screaming fans he is accually, intelgen, well rounded and very nice. as you can see in this clip form "Bowling for Columbine"
As you can see from this video, Marilyn Manson knows what he's talking about, but just by watching the first video, you'd never know, so the question is, why? Why would he dress up like some sort of Goth, punk rocker when he's very intelligent? Because music sells better. Plain and simple. If he dressed up like a normal person, singing normal music, people wouldn't buy his songs, they would have no one to look up to. Normal has been done, its played out, people think if a man that weird can be so successful, then they will fell less weird and more confident with themselves, and feel more comfortable with who they are.
