Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Who is Don Draper?

Mad Men, Season 4 debuted this weekend, and I could not be happier. Episode 1 was everything I hoped it would be, but it left me with a lingering question in my mind: "Who is Don Draper?"

This was the opening line to season 4 and it left me curious. Not only of who is Don Draper, but more of the existential question of who are any of us? Who are we? Don, sensing the enormity of the question, responded with an introspective "How do people answer that?" And I'm left with a similar response. How does one answer that?

Can we self-define ourselves, or rather are we defined by outside factors beyond our comprehension: the work we do, our communications with others, how we choose to spend out time, our relationships with others, etc. Don responds to the question deftly with "I'm from the midwest. We're taught it's not polite to talk about yourself." Although this is true, it's also a classic deflection technique.

So this leads me to the overarching question of "Who am I?" How will my life be defined? Is it possible to boil my life down to a few short sentences that can be easily conveyed? Why would I ever want that to be the case?

Personally, I think who we are is defined by what we do rather than a reliance on some self-identified mentally-masturbatory concept. Rather than me saying "I'm a ninja!", I'd rather rely on my friends to tell me "No you're not, you're totally a pirate." (In that situation, by the way, I'd much rather be the pirate than the ninja. Something about being trapped on a boat with a bunch of seamen...)

What are your thoughts? Who is Don Draper? Are we defined by ourselves or something more? If so, what? Our actions? Our interactions? The size of our reproductive organs?

1 comment:

  1. I don't know, Clayton. I have never been inside your head (nor do I plan to go there any time soon), so who am I to tell you you're a pirate when you think you're a ninja? I think once who we think we are matches who everyone else thinks we are, then we'll know we're being true to ourselves. For example, only a few people saw the real us in high school and our true awesomeness was never fully realized. Now that we let it all hang out to anyone and everyone, who we are in our own eyes should match what everyone else sees. Beyond that, I love the fact that as soon as I stopped worrying about what everyone thought of me, it was easier to accept people for who they are. Once I didn't feel judged, I stopped judging. Now I only judge for fun, not seriously.

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