We live in a shallow world, full of preconceived notions, prejudice, bias, and ugly thoughts about other people based on very little (if any) information. Values like kindness and happiness are not valued at all.
The things that matters are success and money. How many expensive things can you collect in your life before the grave? Things like how many people did you get to feel good? or how many people did you help in your life are relatively unimportant in society.
It is no secret that good-looking people get paid more than average and have an easy time finding a job and an easier time in life in general.
Why?
Simply by winning the genetic lottery. They might work hard on their appearance, to that I have no doubt. But it strikes me as funny that kindness and a warm personality don’t have the same advantages. Is it simply because you can’t see such aspects? Perhaps.
The old saying goes “don’t judge a book by its cover”.
What matters is (or should be) the content of people’s character. The kind of person you are is important.
The Elephant Man is a movie precisely about this truth. Directed by the legend David Lynch back in 1980 the movie tells the story of John Merrick (John Heard) and his friend Doctor Veres (Anthony Hopkins).
John is known as the Elephant Man, a freak who frightens most people who look at him. John is part of a freakshow in the circus. He is treated as an animal, as a subhuman. At one point he is even locked in a cage with monkeys. The other “freaks” in the freakshow help him escape, showing that compassion and kindness have nothing to do with what you look like.
Mr. Veres takes care of him doing the movie. Originally he showed him off as a part of his lecture, but the more he spends time with him the more he starts to realize he is just like any other human. He can speak, he can think, and he is incredibly kind and loyal.
The movie has the same message as Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
People judge John on his appearance, but most people who get to know him think of him as a very kind soul. Most people feel a great deal of pity for him, thinking to themselves
“how can fate be so cruel?”.
The movie is sad, but not in a forced way where the piano music amps up and you feel your emotions being manipulated to the point of tears.
The sadness is subtle.
It sits in your bones and you walk around afterward feeling melancholic.
There are people in this world who look good and act charming, but inside are the vilest and ugliest people. If you could see their true self you would scream in horror like the people in the movie do when they see John.
It is not important how people look, but how they treat other people. What matters is what is in the heart of the person. If there were more people like John the world would be an infinitely better place.