Keeping Up Appearances

The need for validation is deeply ingrained within human nature. Humans consciously and subconsciously look to those around them for confirmation of their social, economic and spiritual status. This perpetuates the mind in which we all live; it preserves the illusion, sustains the charade, and maintain the facade,

Being easily intimidated, we fall in line.
In not wanting to appear foolish, we appease the foolish,
and therefore become foolish.

“Shooting an Elephant” is George Orwell’s honest account of his experience as a police officer in Burma, killing an escaped elephant in front of a crowd ‘solely to avoid looking a fool’. He said that it would have taken a stronger character to stand up to all those people, and declare that the elephant no longer posed a threat.

Keeping up appearances makes people unreliable
as they are easily swayed.