Yours Deceit, etc.

(Reflection Paper)

“Be careful not to lose the substance

by grasping at the shadow.”
– Aesop’s The Dog and the Shadow

If all people would always consider Aesop’s adage, perhaps we will be breathing freely
in a world of candour. But, this isn’t Utopia. No one has vetoed Prometheus from opening the
Pandora’s box, setting the world’s menaces and illnesses freely, including deceit. Deception is a
darkness that disguises itself as light; an evil that creeps inside the falsehood; and a grin
embedded within fabricated smile. Unknown to many, but deception is actually one of the
reasons why a lot of things fall apart. In some cases, no one, not even a soul, knew how potent it
could be. The world, as we know, is chockfull with deceit. Deception is present elsewhere. It
can’t be predicted. Yet, it can be dealt with.

The horror film entitled “Room #6” tells a story of a girl who was looking for a dorm
house. And as the events in the story propagate, she fell in a pit where she can never escape – she
found a cut-rate dorm house owned by a sexually-zealot man. However, it was not a mere dorm
house for a creepy story lies behind. A ghost of a girl, who was accidentally killed by the owner
of the dorm house, lingers in the place. Figuratively, this film shows a paradigm of how
deception may alter a single course of life. The girl in the film was deceived by the very
economical price and tempting features of the dorm house, without even taking into
consideration what other “feature” might the dorm house enclose.

Each man has a story to tell about deception. The world is a deception itself, the biggest
trick in fact. There are countless numbers of people who have been preys of deceit. I, you, them!
We are all victims of this epidemia. Its long-term and rippling effects had caused most of us
devastations and erudition, as well. I can clearly recollect how deception once caused me agony.
There are a lot of instances where I have frolicked with what I thought was heaven’s grace,
without even thinking what they might cause. I made a lot of decisions, big decisions, which
were actually prompted by inconsiderate and reckless actions. One instance is when I
inconsiderately engaged in a superficial experience. I honestly thought all the while that it would
cause me profits because of its alluring facet. But allusion, as I have forgotten, is actually a form
of deception. It was too late when I have come to my senses, and realized things. I was deceived
already, and there was no way to change things. What is done is done already. However, we can
always choose to abscond and rectify blunders.

Plato also believed that deception starts with human interest and action. He expounded
the concept of deception through the elaboration of the Allegory of the Cave. We, humans, are
always vulnerable. We could easily be pleased by the things we think would give us delight. We
could effortlessly be allured by stones disguised as gems. And at the end of the road, we end up
regretting not because of the things that we have done, but because of the things that we could
have done. The shadows will always attempt to trick our eyes. Shadows will always try to hide
the lies.

Films are created to ingeniously convey insights. “Room #6” is a cautious attempt
towards honing peoples’ minds about the end-consequences brought by the unconscious pursuit
to deception. It aims to exhibit the effect of some people’s negligence towards keen and
responsible actions.

People are always people. We get deceived. We get tricked. But, should we remain blind
with how the world diffuses deceits? We can always choose to fight. We can defeat deception.
You see, deceit is everywhere. The world was born with sides, just as how the truth is born
together with lies. We cannot rely alone to what is left in the Pandora’s box – hope, as we
believe. We should not be easily deceived with what we think is right and with what we think is
beneficial for there are really things that are preordained to be artificial.

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- Room #6