Separated-at-Birth-ness: Its Theory and Practice

Ever noticed how people look alike? Of course you have.

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It seems to me that on every second day when I'm out and about, I think I see somebody I know, or used to know, or am able to have an amiable conversation with which doesn't end in an argument or a dissolution of some kind. The problem is when, upon closer inspection, the prima faciê friend turns out to be a total stranger.The good news is my reservedness will prevent my grossly misidentifying somebody. Misanthropy has its strong points too, I guess.

Gotye: Not dead, but dead tired of anonymous hacks making facile references to his work.

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Why is this the case? Here follows a theory I have developed to explain the phenomenon of strangers looking alike; that which we call the "spitting image" of somebody else. 

Two points: 

1) I have no basis in any anthropological expertise of any kind, so take it or leave it as you please. I only appeal to common sense and logic in this piece - and in fact most of my serious articles - but don't expect any jargon to be used. At worst, this is just supposition and hypotheticals. 

2) Inb4 being called racist. I am an internationalist, and this article should prove that.   

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The human face is strange, in a way. It is eternal - the one abiding sign of humanity - and yet it can be so confusing. Confusing in that its manifestations can be interpreted in a hundred different ways, and yet these are all variations on a theme. Looks, glances, frowns, smiles - who hasn't got it wrong at some stage?

But it goes deeper than that. The combinatorics of the human - why people look same-same, but different-different - is itself a variation on a theme. That theme of course is identity, and does assert itself when people mistake others for other others (yes, I know, no need to be Derridean and thus make it more confusing.)

As above, this is supposition. But surely there are aspects of the human face that make it so mistakable. I am writing of course of ratios (yay!)  - chin to head, lips to mouth, cheek to head and others - and distances - eye to eye, nostril to nostril and lip to lip &c. For as da Vinci recognised in Vitruvian Man, the person is able to be quantified. The face is the same, and to give this post some chutzpah, I propose the following experiment: a researcher goes into the city, does whatever, and when they happen upon a person who looks like a person they know, drag both (the friend lookalike and the friend) back to the lab (with consent, of course) and measure said ratios and distances. I propose that, given proper means to statistical petulance, the said ratios and distances will come back close enough, if not the same. 

Simply put, similar facial features make, upon first glance, the friend lookalike and the friend look undifferentiable.     

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To the question of race, and it's valid enough, I put forth this response. Facial features have no knowledge of race - whether it's just a construct or not - and are there of their own accord (when I write that, obviously I refer to birth and growth, nature and nurture &c.). I would suggest similar or identical facial features transcend racial boundaries. It is just the combination of these features that make people look similar. 

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This facial similarity, this separated-at-birth-ness goes a long way to explaining the appeal in having "separated at birth" columns in newspapers around the globe. It's a widespread phenomenon, so it's easy to relate to, plus it fills in space between the ads (sorry, that's a crisp one from one of my journalism lecturers).

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One quick example to demonstrate (in fact, this was to be all of this article originally) is the facial similarity between my two favourite politicos, Tony Jones and Glenn Beck. Part of the appeal of this exercise is, given their ideological polarities, to raise the hypothetical that they may have the same mum. It more than likely isn't the case, but it's fun anyhow. 

 Tony Jones and Glenn Beck: Lookalikes, but polar opposites, ideologically speaking

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If this article seems weird or esoteric or arcane or insane, then yes, I enjoy all of those words. It just seems to me there's a reason why strangers look similar, and this is my contribution to the discussion, however non-existent it may be.

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