What is more authentic?
Cultural differences struck many travelers, coming to North America from Europe. One of the frequent observations is that Americans are much more confident and natural in maintaining all kind of communications, ranging from business ones to private. Jean Baudrillard in his book “America” noted: “Just look at this girl who serves you in the guest-room: she does so in total freedom, with a smile, without prejudice or pretentiousness. The situation is not an equal one, but she does not pretend to equality. Precisely the opposite of Sartre’s waiter, who is completely alienated from his representation and who only resolves the situation by calling on a theatrical metalanguage, by affecting in his gestures freedom and equality he does not really enjoy."
Another example can be eye contact: in many cultures, people can look into the other’s eyes just on rare occasions, but in North America, direct eye contact is necessary and unavoidable. So, who is more authentic: Baudrillard’s American girl or Sartre’s French waiter? An autistic child, not looking at you at all, or an ordinary kid, always keeping the direct eye contact? What form of cultural behavior is more authentic: the perfect final form, applied almost automatically and unconsciously, or the developing and becoming one, with the unknown outcome?
Another example can be eye contact: in many cultures, people can look into the other’s eyes just on rare occasions, but in North America, direct eye contact is necessary and unavoidable. So, who is more authentic: Baudrillard’s American girl or Sartre’s French waiter? An autistic child, not looking at you at all, or an ordinary kid, always keeping the direct eye contact? What form of cultural behavior is more authentic: the perfect final form, applied almost automatically and unconsciously, or the developing and becoming one, with the unknown outcome?
Comments (18)
Authenticity, as I understand it, derives from the consistency between aspiration and actuality within one's person. When what one strives for as good for ones self is contrary to how one acts with respect to ones self and others, one is probably losing authenticity. For example, if one considers equality between persons as good, but one maintains inequality with most other people, one would be inauthentic (in that respect).
“To thine own self be true!” Polonius says to Hamlet, as the conclusion to a speech of good advice.
Authenticity is more of a process than an established condition. Authenticity is also difficult to judge in other people. If I am being served by an obsequious waiter, I can't tell whether the waiter is being authentic or whether he is playing a role. I also can't tell whether a waiter is being authentic if his behavior is caustic and condescending. He also could be playing a role (which may or may not be consistent with his own person).
One has to know someone quite well to know whether they are being authentic or not. One can't even automatically assume authenticity for ones self without some self-examination.
I agree with you.
Quoting Bitter Crank
It is a kind of automatic reaction when one identifies something as not natural, not usual.
a situation, where the slogan “Be Yourself” has become a tool for imposing dominating cultural standards? And, at the same time, real authenticity, related to becoming and therefore invisible, is pushed aside?
Faking one's humanity involves faking authenticity, which means wearing the right brand of jeans 'by accident'. I am a tremendous faker, the best faker you have ever seen, I'm so tremendously talented at faking that everyone thinks I'm authentic, except those who are pretending not to be impressed, and they really think I'm authentic, they just don't like what I authentically am, which they believe, by the way. So everyone thinks I'm authentic, and I even believe it myself. And that's what authenticity is - a convincing fake.
To the extent that authenticity means anything to me, it is relaxation, and it is a privilege rather than a virtue. It is the gift that very few people have of being able to just act without constantly judging themself or wondering what others think of them. It is something to aspire to in the same way as learning to meditate is something to aspire to - because the better we get at it the more content we will be and possibly the more pleasure we can give to others, like Baudrillard's naturally smiling waiter.
But it is no more something to criticise someone over for not having it than one should criticise someone who has never been able to learn to read.
Quoting unenlightened
So, if you do not believe in authenticity, why are you still a part of the game?
How can we differentiate between fake and authentic?
Quoting andrewk
What about reflection? Most likely, a true authenticity lives in the thought.
Quoting andrewk
It is almost impossible. So-called "authenticity" is like an imperative: we must live and judge ourselves
according to dominating "authentic" norms.
IOW, the waiter treating their customers like shit is at fault, and the the customer treating a waiter like shit is also at fault. Season to taste with varying cultural norms.
"While the
jargon of authenticity overflows with the pretense of deep human
emotion, it is just as standardized as the world that
it officially negates; the reason for this lies partly in its
mass success, partly in the fact that it posits its message
automatically, through its mere nature. The jargon affirms
the reliability of the universal by means of the
distinction of having a bourgeois origin , a distinction
which is itself authorized by the universal. Its tone of
approved selectivity seems to come from the person
himself. The greater advantage in all this is that of
good references . It makes no difference what the voice
that resonates in, this way says ; it is signing a social
contract."
2018, it isn't your fault that Adorno writes this way. I can't figure out HOW this sentence could be meaningful. Is a truth-teller merely a juggler of jargon?
That was an attempt at humour and parody. Of course it is an important distinction to make in others. And even more important to make in oneself. The serious point, though, is that trying to be authentic, trying to be anything, is faking an authenticity one lacks. But as with art, fakes can be very convincing, so I don't have a universal answer for your question. Indeed a soon as one gives an answer in any general case, it becomes another attribute that can be faked.
Absolutely! I try not to judge others, the most important for me to find out if I am authentic myself.
This problem related to our values (Do we still have them?), and about our lives (Can we change anything in our lives? Can we even pose a problem of a proper life nowadays?)