No More Authenticity?

Elegant Winter said:
I agree with @Lark. People are very rarely themselves in public life and more of life is becoming public.
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You live up to your name, that was so much more eloquent than what I said, economy of words, to the point. It is almost Haiku.
 
Human Rights. That's when them heads started swelling up.
 
Everyone, is this rose tinted glasses (or nostalgia) speaking?

I am with the camp that things has not changed that much.

Excepts ethics. We are definitely improving as far as ethics are concerned.

People would say that the practice often was reeked with intolerance, differences, us vs them--

But I believe that has been there in the past.

We just lacked the wisdom and understanding and nowadays, things are much more exposed.
 
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I think this lessened authenticity is actually a paradox, because we are encouraged to "be ourselves" and "be confident in who we are" unless it's not culturally or socially ideal for the society you live in. It's true that it is easy to idealize the past, because the past is never as "perfect" as you think it is. But there is a huge difference in how one has to be today vs. previous decades. This focus on the "self" emphasizes that someone is not relevant or significant if they are not seeking attention, noticeable or visible. It teaches people to project an inauthentic self to prove confidence and conformity, while insisting that not demonstrating a preferred socially constructed authentic self makes you unfit. If your authentic self is not socially winnable, it's not authentic because only those people who are happy with themselves would show it. Only those who are not comfortable or happy with themselves would avoid attention or spotlight. That's the new authenticity, which teaches us that there is only one way to be authentic: conform to everyone else.
 
We live such isolated lives, apart from any real sense of family and community. Only if we each feel a part of something larger than ourselves, can we let our narcissistic egos go and replace it with selfless love for our family, neighbors, and community. This is difficult to do in this technologically advanced era, but one day we will need each other like our ancestors needed each other. It will be essential to our survival.
 
Power of Vulnerablity

Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past ten years studying vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame. She spent the first five years of her decade-long study focusing on shame and empathy, and is now using that work to explore a concept that she calls Wholeheartedness. She poses the questions:

How do we learn to embrace our vulnerabilities and imperfections so that we can engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness? How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to recognize that we are enough — that we are worthy of love, belonging, and joy?
[video]http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?language=en#t-558838[/video]
 
Jimmers said:
We live such isolated lives, apart from any real sense of family and community. Only if we each feel a part of something larger than ourselves, can we let our narcissistic egos go and replace it with selfless love for our family, neighbors, and community. This is difficult to do in this technologically advanced era, but one day we will need each other like our ancestors needed each other. It will be essential to our survival.
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agree, we are very insulated world. We tend to stick to ourselves, mostly because we are more guarded and protective of personal privacy and safety, which is understandable. However, it's gone to the extreme, so it's an everyone has to lookout for themselves since we social responsibility has all but gone out the window. Not that we should blindly trust people. But it is sad that in our pursuit of complete independence we lost a lot of communal values which would be mutually beneficial. However, we've bought into the idea that the "every person for themselves" philosophy is better for everyone, although it hasn't really worked out as wonderfully as we were encouraged to believe.
 
Of course you aren't the only one. We all agree with your statement. It's being brought out time and time again that as INFJ's we look at the past and the future as something more desirable then the present.
 
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