Sure, learning changes you. Some of that learning is deliberate and some is unconscious, and you are what you learn. I don't think it means you should be afraid to learn new things, but you might want to pay attention to what you spend your time learning.
Authenticity as a notion is a robust Western cultural more that I find confusing. The best parse I can get on it is this: developing an awareness and possibly a narrative around ways you behave with a subconscious expectation of social affirmation. Developing that awareness can certainly feel like a liberation of self-determination.
That can, also, undoubtedly be a powerful tool in overcoming cultural brainwashing of sorts, but I think the knife cuts both ways. The "authentic self" term makes it sound ontologically real and suggests that there is merit in searching for "finding oneself" when no ther motivating need exists. That road leads to pathological definition writing, IMHO.
The answer is to think back to the kid you used to be, but now the kids are formed differently than before. The new kids have computers and YouTube, they already are participating in the misma of technology, they don't have the old memories of the before computer times to fall back into.
What makes an action ‘authentic’? The parts of you that “mask”, “cheat”, or “lie” are also “authentic you”. This new age talk of Authenticity carries within a narcissistic danger of rejecting some parts of yourself (strategies of survival) and trying to get rid of them instead of transforming, growth, expansion. To believe we can ever act without consideration of our environment, and we just ‘need to become more authentic’, is similarly wrong and will lead to “suffering”.
Secondly, and even more dangerous, is to assume you had an identity in the first place. What the author probably mistakes for his identity is an image molded into him by parents, early circumstances, and societal norms and rules at the time. A “violation” of these internalized rules later in life can feel life-threatening, or wrong, and invoke shame, because in early age, belonging was strictly necessary for survival. Later in life, that limits your options, but has nothing to do with “who you are”. You create who you are, moment to moment.
Consider an inquiry when you think “that was not authentic” (by yourself or other). What kind of internalized rules does it touch? Do you actually still consider these rules to be correct and useful today?
The past can and will haunt you, but it’s not real. It’s ghosts. You need to decide how to deal with them. But “lack of authenticity” is not it.
You are the ongoing creator of your identity. And you still want to belong. But maybe not to the church of your upbringing. You’re free to burn it down any time.
Author unconsciously became someone who misspells "losing" as "loosing". It proves it's not slop though, so I'm grateful.
Sorry for the snark. I like the idea of the article. I'm becoming an asshole day-by-day, I don't like it, I wonder if it's because of the deluge of idiocy that we're confronted with, that grows and grows, also thanks to comment sections (spot the irony). The sad thing about the Internet is it's a high speed tool to bring idiocy in front of you.
But even without the Internet, isn't culture a way of creating society of similar people, ie. people influenced by others? Taylor Swift is gigantic pop star, but so were the Beatles. Different regions had different local recipes, that all the moms knew how to make, spread in a memetic way...
- unpopular opinion: wipe out every comment and every post made on X, instagram and tiktok from every hard drive on the planet and you ll be absolutely blown away by how much the society ll change within a week
people who are stuck spending a lot of time inside apartments doom scrolling are definitely going to become detached from reality, but anyone who is engaging in social and outdoor, and physical activities is going to have perspective, even having a cat or a dog around is going to provide a significant counter to any of the wackological naritives populating the slop-a-verse
Sure, learning changes you. Some of that learning is deliberate and some is unconscious, and you are what you learn. I don't think it means you should be afraid to learn new things, but you might want to pay attention to what you spend your time learning.
Authenticity as a notion is a robust Western cultural more that I find confusing. The best parse I can get on it is this: developing an awareness and possibly a narrative around ways you behave with a subconscious expectation of social affirmation. Developing that awareness can certainly feel like a liberation of self-determination.
That can, also, undoubtedly be a powerful tool in overcoming cultural brainwashing of sorts, but I think the knife cuts both ways. The "authentic self" term makes it sound ontologically real and suggests that there is merit in searching for "finding oneself" when no ther motivating need exists. That road leads to pathological definition writing, IMHO.
> Authenticity now has to be certified
so did someone come up with a solid authenticity benchmark for humans yet?
I think Abraham Lincoln
The answer is to think back to the kid you used to be, but now the kids are formed differently than before. The new kids have computers and YouTube, they already are participating in the misma of technology, they don't have the old memories of the before computer times to fall back into.
What makes an action ‘authentic’? The parts of you that “mask”, “cheat”, or “lie” are also “authentic you”. This new age talk of Authenticity carries within a narcissistic danger of rejecting some parts of yourself (strategies of survival) and trying to get rid of them instead of transforming, growth, expansion. To believe we can ever act without consideration of our environment, and we just ‘need to become more authentic’, is similarly wrong and will lead to “suffering”.
Secondly, and even more dangerous, is to assume you had an identity in the first place. What the author probably mistakes for his identity is an image molded into him by parents, early circumstances, and societal norms and rules at the time. A “violation” of these internalized rules later in life can feel life-threatening, or wrong, and invoke shame, because in early age, belonging was strictly necessary for survival. Later in life, that limits your options, but has nothing to do with “who you are”. You create who you are, moment to moment.
Consider an inquiry when you think “that was not authentic” (by yourself or other). What kind of internalized rules does it touch? Do you actually still consider these rules to be correct and useful today?
The past can and will haunt you, but it’s not real. It’s ghosts. You need to decide how to deal with them. But “lack of authenticity” is not it.
You are the ongoing creator of your identity. And you still want to belong. But maybe not to the church of your upbringing. You’re free to burn it down any time.
> the boundary between "I like this" and "I've seen enough people liking this that I now think I like this" gets blurry
Burning Man has a lot of things I’ve never seen before that I wind up liking without anyone else’s validation
Most of that experience is still different than what gets posted online about that experience
If you’re looking for what this article is talking about, it’s there
Author unconsciously became someone who misspells "losing" as "loosing". It proves it's not slop though, so I'm grateful.
Sorry for the snark. I like the idea of the article. I'm becoming an asshole day-by-day, I don't like it, I wonder if it's because of the deluge of idiocy that we're confronted with, that grows and grows, also thanks to comment sections (spot the irony). The sad thing about the Internet is it's a high speed tool to bring idiocy in front of you.
But even without the Internet, isn't culture a way of creating society of similar people, ie. people influenced by others? Taylor Swift is gigantic pop star, but so were the Beatles. Different regions had different local recipes, that all the moms knew how to make, spread in a memetic way...
As I tell my kids. I was young too. But I'm not young now.
- unpopular opinion: wipe out every comment and every post made on X, instagram and tiktok from every hard drive on the planet and you ll be absolutely blown away by how much the society ll change within a week
people who are stuck spending a lot of time inside apartments doom scrolling are definitely going to become detached from reality, but anyone who is engaging in social and outdoor, and physical activities is going to have perspective, even having a cat or a dog around is going to provide a significant counter to any of the wackological naritives populating the slop-a-verse