When it comes to catching mice, I’ve always been an advocate for humane traps. As a childhood subscriber to the RSPCA magazine and a lifelong David Attenborough worshipper I see myself as pretty in tune with animal welfare. However, dressed in my boxers, armed with a paintbrush, and stalking across my bedroom floor, my actions were at odds with my beliefs. I was out for blood and all it took was a week of disturbed sleep.
At 3 AM every morning, my room reverberated with gnawing that sounded like a pneumatic drill. A furry demon the size of a small dog had taken up residence under my floor. Its only goal, it would seem, to drive me insane.
Without taking up my entire floor there was no way to reach the mouse. We were engaged in a battle of wits. As I stood half-naked, wide-eyed, and stabbed furiously through the gaps between my floorboards, I realised that the mouse was probably winning.
This reminded me of a campaign from 2014 that I particularly loved. With no more than a sandwich board, some leaflets, and an online video, Publicis’ ‘Fuck the Poor’ for The Pillion Trust highlighted the gulf between actions and beliefs.
What is it that separates these two things? What makes someone willing to defend the poor but not provide meaningful aid? What turns a peaceful animal-lover into a raging mouse murderer? My furry friend helped me come to a realisation.
Our beliefs are not a concrete set of rules that we live by. They are a value system that reflects the person we want to be, our perfect self. Our actions represent our true self; flawed, inconsistent, and 99% of the time driven by comfort and convenience. When pushed, our perfect and our true selves rarely align.
However, we live in a time in which it’s never been easier to broadcast an image of the person we want to be. My feeds are brimming with social media activism. Posts, comments, and links to articles position my contacts as some of the most motivated and altruistic individuals on the planet. For the record, they’re not.
Our online identities are our perfect selves manifested. It’s easy to perform actions that reinforce this image; shares, likes, and comments. We are tricking ourselves into believing that we are staying true to our beliefs by telling the world what we believe in. Our online identities are making it easy to ignore the disconnect between who we are and who we want to be. They make it easier to forget to take meaningful action.
As The Pillion Trust has found, this has a direct impact on their ability to operate. Why give money when you can post your support for a cause online? The belief that we should look out for those less fortunate than ourselves hasn’t changed, the actions we take to affirm that belief have. It’s far more convenient and public to donate words instead of cash. Unfortunately, charities can’t survive on good will alone.
This conflict of identity doesn’t just affect individuals though. I see so many well-meaning brands broadcasting messages about what they believe, yet they struggle to consistently demonstrate these beliefs through their actions. It’s almost like they think that if they say they’re innovative, people-focused, and sustainable enough it’ll actually come true. Believing in positive change and making positive change happen are not one and the same.
I never managed to kill that mouse. My failure as a rodent assassin forced me to reassess my uncharacteristic actions. I don’t want to be the sort of guy that impales tiny mammals with art tools. I’m now experimenting with more creative and less bloodthirsty ways to catch or deter the home invader.
Our perfect and our true selves not aligning is what pushes us to be better, to work smarter, to improve the world around us. For that to happen, we all need to be more honest about where who we want to be ends and where who we actually are begins. If you believe in something, don’t tell the world, prove it.
