The Art of Invisibility

“I speak with a voice that will never move others, with a passion that goes unheard.”

— Kreia, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

To be the one who is ignored is a tough and brutal existence.

It is much like drowning. You are running out of air. There is no one to help you — only the great, dark mass that distances you from their awareness.

I am not talking about the kind of invisibility that comes from voluntarily seeking it. Some people prefer to be ignored. They want to live unnoticed because of many reasons, often personal.

But those that try to engage and miss the mark seemingly each time? It is something I am deeply familiar with, the quiet rejection stemming from my history with Asperger’s Syndrome. I was forged in that rejection that I experienced.

To be involuntarily invisible is like many problems in life. You can choose many things to do with that kind of existence. Some good, many terrible.

The Tyrant

More than we’d like to see, those that are rejected become the Tyrant. The archetype of the Tyrant is fueled by revenge. Not to embrace their position and use it, but rather to suddenly become visible only through brutal and immoral means.

Think of the social rejects that became orchestrators of tragedies.

An all-too-common example? Shooters.

The bullied and ostracized recluse that exacted vengeance on others.

The quiet kid that joined the military to engage in a form of sadistic control over others.

The kind that take fascinations with any sort of power over others, born out of the frustration of invisibility.

In the end, the Tyrant gets what he desires — to be visible. But he will not fulfill the other part, which is to be accepted.

Ultimately, the path of the Tyrant is short-lived, grim, and does more harm than anyone else.

The Reject

The loneliness of the Reject is not the same as the lone nature of the Silent Warrior or the Unheard Seer. The Reject, unlike the Silent Warrior, has not recognized the fundamental truth: that outside recognition is not needed to live well.

The Reject likewise, does not become the Tyrant because he lacks the motive for revenge. Instead, he repeatedly tries to engage in the popularity game that he has no chance at winning. The Reject is constantly chasing fads when they have been left behind, and if he lands on one at a punctual time, he diminishes the aesthetic value of the fad with his awkwardness and faces humiliation.

Instead of being a slave to revenge like the Tyrant, the Reject is a slave to recognition, yet will never truly receive it in the way he wants. At best, he will be humiliated and never learn the lesson. He will constantly chase the approval of others.

The Silent Warrior

Unlike the Tyrant, the Silent Warrior learns to command respect in an atypical manner. The kind of respect the Silent Warrior commands is often desired by the Reject that cannot stop running his mouth.

It is the Silent Warrior that has reckoned with his invisibility, used it to his advantage, and now subtly commands influence and is recognized. He is virtuous, motivated, and his silence now speaks for him through a more useful output: action.

The Silent Warrior perhaps dies in obscurity. He also may die in glory and recognition. But to him, these are meaningless, because he recognized the truth about the recognition he once craved: that fame and social acceptance is useless.

Instead, the Silent Warrior has found everything within. Ironically, the Silent Warrior has become visible through the Backwards Law. By not trying nearly as hard as the Reject, but instead seeking internal value, he has become visible.

The Unheard Seer

Different than the Silent Warrior, the Unheard Seer often takes her invisibility and wages war against it.

The defiance in this archetype is for ultimately, a good aim. The Unheard Seer is often ruthlessly introspective, but just as equally ruthless in her analysis of the world around her. She does not transmute her invisibility into powerful action like the Silent Warrior does. Instead, she seeks the subtlety of manipulation and precisely-placed actions.

While the Silent Warrior is transparent in many of his things through his external actions, the Unheard Seer is constantly thinking. These thoughts may be preoccupied with matters of morals, philosophy, becoming wiser — and likewise, getting what she wants. But what her methods to get what she wants is not like the Tyrant, who commits egregious cruelties to be noticed.

The Unheard Seer is an archetype that I believe to be the most rare, because often, those that are adamant on being seen yet fail to do so will become a Reject.

The Unheard Seer, despite her invisibility, thrives in a different way. She is a poet, a thinker, an orator and a wise person that is often unrecognized until far after her passing — or not recognized at all.

Think of the countless great authors that we became aware of long after they are gone.

The relative that was ignored yet had some of the most valuable wisdom in our family.

The teacher that was not everyone’s favorite, but did what he was supposed to: he taught.

Conclusion

I am a fan of categorizing things, and often in threes or fives, or if I am feeling especially ambitious, tens. If it’s any other number, then truly, the subject must be a challenge.

But despite those strict ways of organization, I understand that we do not always fit neatly into one of these categories, nor can the entirety of life be divided into systems.

Additionally, just because we may find ourselves in one of these archetypes does not mean we cannot change. Human beings are not always irredeemable monsters. Very few of us are truly beyond saving. Nor are we always unloved social outcasts incapable of receiving even the most basic level of validation.

All I ask is that if you recognize yourself as invisible, forge yourself into what your true, best self is.

If you are not invisible, but have the eye for detail to notice others that are, all I ask is that you keep noticing them. See what they are evolving into from their position.

In doing so, you may prevent a tragedy.

Or you may witness the rise of a great human being.

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