Any time someone is able to strap an abstract label on another person or persons in how they handle their business with them, it should be a key indicator for us that they are less in touch with reality and diminished in their capacity to deal with what is best in life then they would want us to believe.

Typically, these people are more concerned with their public image than they are the personal relationships in their lives.

This idea was brought to life the novel and on the silver screen in the Wizard of Oz.

The Wizard is one of the characters that magnifies this reality. Unseen, but ever the object sought after for most of this story, he is the ruler of the Land of Oz and highly honored, and somewhat worshiped by his subjects. Believing he is the only man capable of solving their problems, Dorothy Gale and her friends travel to the Emerald City, the capital of Oz, to meet him. Oz is very reluctant to meet them, but eventually each is granted an audience, one by one. In each of these occasions, the Wizard appears in a different form, once as a giant head, once as a beautiful fairy, once as a ball of fire, and once as a horrible monster. When, at last, he grants an audience to all of them at once, he seems to be a disembodied voice.

Eventually, it is revealed that Oz is actually none of these things, but rather an ordinary conman from Omaha, Nebraska, who has been using a lot of elaborate magic tricks and props to make himself seem “great and powerful.”  Working as a magician for a circus, he wrote OZ (the initials of his first two forenames, Oscar being his first, and Zoroaster being the first of his seven middle names) on the side of his hot air balloon for promotional purposes. One day his balloon sailed into the Land of Oz, and he found himself worshipped as a great sorcerer. As Oz had no leadership at the time, he became Supreme Ruler of the kingdom, and did his best to sustain the myth.

It wasn’t until Toto, the trusty sidekick dog of Dorothy, pulled back the curtain that hid the conman, did everyone get a glimpse of the real person who had been behind the smoke and mirrors the whole time.

Prior to the unveiling, OZ was able to keep everyone in the dark about his true self, by strapping on labels such as, ‘All Knowing’, or ‘Great and Powerful’.

Prior to the unveiling, OZ was able to keep everyone in check by stripping them of their dignity by using words that would relate and reinforce their predicament to who they were as individuals (i.e. the Tinman was clinking clanking collection of collagenous junk).

On one hand, the Wizard was able to project an image of himself that was out of touch with the reality of who he really was… on the other hand, he was able to project an image of others that was out of touch with the reality of who they really were.

Seemingly then… the Wizard had all the power and influence.

As we’ve mentioned, however… the reality that surrounded this man was false.  Without the ability to project the labels he relied on with the use of power and influence, this man would have been seen for what he really was… a conman.

Pulling back the curtains and revealing the true nature of a person who builds a false reality on the persuasion and illusion that they desire everyone to just buy hook and sinker can be quite and undertaking… and there is no doubt, you will be met with desperation and psychotic behavior.  At times, it can be downright scary.

Often times it is done during a moment in your life when you have broken free from the labels they have imposed upon you… so just being able to have your voice heard is a new experience.  Equally as daunting is that this new behavior on your part is not within the boundaries that your oppressor desires you to live within.  If you find yourself in this position… expect the oppressive nature that you have lived under for so long to be magnified at you… and possibly carried out to your friends and family members.

The ‘great and powerful’ ones need to have you under control… and if they can’t control you… know that you will be punished and will feel it.  They will stop at nothing.  If you have made the break, and felt the freedom that comes from it… rest assured, you will feel anew the weight that you carried for so many years.

These abusers are ‘label factories’.  Just when you think that they are at a point where they could be moving on… another label comes again.

‘The Likes of You’ is one in a series of nebulous labels that has come our way in recent years.  We don’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what it means.  It is the most nebulous one to date… it almost feels like bait on a hook meant to lure a person into the mucky waters of a twisted reality.

If you’ve ever made that break from an abuser… you understand the twisted games that they play not to deal directly with you as a human being… but rather as a thing that has forgotten their submissive function in their lives.  They just want you to get back in your place.

Don’t take the bait.

‘The Likes of YOU’ is not a thing with a function.

‘The Likes of YOU’ is a wonderful, one of a kind creation that has a voice.

‘The Likes of YOU’ has empathy… they do not.

‘The Likes of YOU’ can feel remorse… they cannot.

‘The Likes of YOU’ has reasoning skills… they only want it their way… period.

And if things don’t work out the way they would have it… well…