In 14th century feudal Japan, perhaps even before the Tokugawa Shogunate, soldiers for hire would go on sub-rosa missions on behalf of their sponsors. The charter of these individuals was to undermine the opposition of the Shogun. The paid army were called “shinobi no mono” (men of secrecy) but more commonly, they were called ninja. These mercenaries trained extensively in the art of war. Their expertise included the nefarious disciplines of espionage, sabotage, infiltration and of course, assassination. They wore dark uniforms from head to toe and concealed their faces with masks.
Over 2000 years ago, the ancient Celts inhabited what is known today as Ireland, the land of a thousand welcomes. Celt communities elected to wear masks on October 31st as they impatiently awaited for November 1st to deliver the new year. Although unseen by mortals, the common belief was that there existed a periphery between the living and the dead. According to Celtic belief, the boundary between both worlds was indistinguishable on the eve of the new year. It was their conviction that the spirit of the dead would wander the world on that night hoping to possess their bodies. The Celts wore masks to disguise themselves as animals in a courageous attempt to frighten and drive away the malevolent spirits of insidious intent.
In early America, right around 1850, Tommy Hodges aka Tom Bell, was held accountable for the first stagecoach robbery out on the west coast. The Bell gang was easily identified, captured and sentenced to hang. That report prompted other “desperados” to adopt a proactive approached when realizing the benefit associated with the hiding of self. Outlaws, as if by policy, began placing bandanas over their faces when committing brazenly orchestrated acts such as, making unauthorized withdrawals from local financial institutions. The cat burglar, who needlessly has been romanticized by Hollywood, surreptitiously entered homes in the obscurity of night with the objective of liberating the victims of their jewels. The highly portable and easily disposable ski mask, enthusiastically won the endorsement of these stealthy criminals as their disguise of choice. In modern society, it is usual for the gangster to wear bandanas over their faces as they perpetrate offenses, such as drive by shootings.
Given these accounts, it may be fair to state that the purpose of the mask is to hide one’s self from possible recognition. In our age of Social Networking, sites such as Linked-In, Twitter, MySpace and Squidoo are prevalent. I often come across profiles of individuals who have no photo of themselves posted. These individuals are by far the minority. They commonly leave the picture placeholder blank or populate it with photographs of their pets, animated characters, or some type of scenery. I will call it a digital mask. Let us theorize that someone knows these people exist and have already seen their faces. Let us also suppose there is truly no such thing as an ugly face; instead, ugly is what lies in the recesses of some people’s hearts. Why put yourself on a public forum only to conceal your identity? The concept remains riveting.
Recently, I was searching for an old friend on Facebook. I found his name quite easily. The problem was there were approximately eight or nine guys with the same exact name and not one of them had a photo posted. My mind started to wonder, as it often does. I imagined these men did not want bounty hunters, or Johnny Law finding them. I then realized it was perhaps far worse than that. After having been divorced for 14 years, these poor saps did not want their ex-wives discovering they had an undeclared windfall, which would result in a readjustment to the alimony already in arrears.
Wearing Masks and Hiding Windfalls… So easy, even Robert can do it!