The question brings up the commonsense idea that human beings can wear a mask (a “persona”) and pretend to be one person while actually being something or someone entirely different. It’s based on the age-old philosophical topic of “appearance versus reality.” More simply, it’s the problem of phoniness. This raises a question: How can we see behind the mask to know who someone really is?

We know we can’t simply trust what someone says. (“I am who I say I am!”). People can lie or be mistaken, even about themselves. We also can’t necessarily trust what others say (“This person is who I say they are!”) for the same reason. As recent events have shown quite vividly, we also can’t necessarily trust media, “respected authorities,” “The Science,” and so on.

What options does that leave us? Can we ever really know who someone is?

One answer here is supplied by—wait for it—the study of drama.

Image by Andrea Widburg

“True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure—the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character’s essential nature.” (This is from the book Story by Robert McKee.) Revealing character—from Don Quixote or Hamlet to The Usual Suspects or Fight Club—is a key pillar of storytelling and the billion-dollar entertainment industry.

We can pair this with a quote from Robert Ingersoll about Abraham Lincoln: “…if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test.”

We can now apply this test to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. What choices have they made under pressure? And what have they done with power?

The answers here could branch in multiple directions. For example, we could take note that Kamala Harris’s........

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