Authenticity Is Imprudence and Promise Breaking
One of the great modern sin complexes goes by the name of authenticity.
It’s too deeply ingrained in our world to be easily perceived. But bit by bit, we’ve been naming and dissecting it. Today I’ve found another piece of the puzzle. It came to me this morning, I think while I was miserably trying a saline wash to flush the cold out of my nasal tracts.
Authenticity is high time preference
High time preference is when you don’t make provision for tomorrow because the future just isn’t real to you. What you want, you want it now, damn the consequences. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” In other words, authenticity is imprudence. Authenticity is a distorted way of emphasizing the present over the future.
(Fear is prudence without faith or love.)
People who have skin in the game sometimes envy people who don’t. They romanticize gypsies, bohemians, and ghetto thugs for their ability to live in the moment because they have nothing in the future to live for. They call that quality of totally embracing the impulse of the moment “authenticity.” Authenticity is a distortion of growth mindset and the high trust attitudes cultivated by decent societies.
Authenticity is anti-eternity. With respect to the future, it is imprudent. With respect to the past, it breaks promises and betrays old ties.
Filed under: Birkenhead Drill,PRIVATE | Tags: cult of authenticity, LDS, virtue diagram
Zen
September 27, 2015
These kind of posts are good enough that I always feel bad that I can’t add more. But J Max has an excellent post up on ‘authenticity’ that I think would be worth reading. http://www.sixteensmallstones.org/to-thine-own-self-be-true-authenticity-vs-your-best-self/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Sixteen-Small-Stones-LDS+%28Sixteen+Small+Stones+-+LDS%29
Zen
June 13, 2016
Great article in the NYT on Unless You’re Oprah, ‘Be Yourself’ Is Terrible Advice.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/opinion/sunday/unless-youre-oprah-be-yourself-is-terrible-advice.html&ved=0ahUKEwjr6NLT3qXNAhVWOFIKHeggAUYQFggbMAA&usg=AFQjCNEbKHAMlL5VZL7HrgTlCkoJ3kNxUA&sig2=XgZQT1KxVw5QZjfXcPwYmQ
The author has a lot to say about it. One of the best parts is the man who decided to be completely authentic and not monitor what he said. I noticed a number of online rebuttals, but at first glance, they seem to be of the No True Scotsman variety.
G.
June 13, 2016
Good one, Zen.
James
June 14, 2016
Not to mince words Zen, but the NYT’s author’s definition of sincerity -words (or appearance) matching actions- better fits as the definition of Integrity as I have learned it.
This to say that the article reminded me of The Scarlet Letter. It took me a long time to understand Hawthorne’s message the way I do now, that when Christians face their own hypocrisy (the opposite of integrity, the mismatch of appearance and practice) they ought to resolve their hypocrisy into integrity. First, by admitting hypocrisy (for all have fallen short of the glory of God) and second, by more fully living up to Christian principles with increased obedience AND increased forgiveness. The latter we ought to have done, not to leave the former undone.
It took me some time because the interpretation hammered into me in school and in every modern interpretation of Hawthorne’s novel concludes that when a person confronts their own hypocrisy, instead of changing one’s practice to match his preaching, one should give up preaching and revel in his un-Christian practice. Be yourself.
Be Yourself sounds like good advice until you realize that it precludes us from a better way.
“Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.”
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.”