AUTHENTICITY
Live from the hellscape.
AUTHENTICITY
Most fine art in the world is completely invaluable without a certificate of authenticity. Someone can work on a painting for years and years and it has no cold hard value until you can prove that it’s real. This idea applies to every single thing, person and circumstance you can imagine as well.
BULLSHIT METERS
We are all lying to each other every day. This is a good thing. It’s helped us develop a new skill.
You can learn more from someone lying to you than telling you the truth. Someone telling a lie immediately means the thing they are lying about has weight to it. How they lie will tell you the nature of the big special secret. Whether that be nervously, confidently, etc. But mostly, it will tell you the most about them, how much they respect you, themselves, (every once in a while someone lies to you and it’s the right thing to do but that’s a complex point for another time) and how they navigate situations with stakes, tension, pressure, and moral wrongness. The truth just gives you whatever stupid piece of information you want. What’s the fun in that?
We are dumb getting dumber, but in many ways, are the smartest we’ve ever been. And better than ever are our bullshit meters. We can tell why somebody is doing the thing they’re doing, and when they are doing something that is unnatural to them.
On the surface it could be someone using a term that they usually don’t, wearing an outfit that looks unnatural to them might take a bit of knowing somebody to recognize. There’s levels to this. And on a deeper one…
EXAMPLE
When you see someone’s music being promoted the same way you’ve seen everyone else’s music being promoted, not only are you bored, but you get a little bummed out. “Oh, they feel like they have to make these tik toks.” You think, as you never consider listening.
They wrote, arranged, did a hundred vocal takes, remixed the drums, mixed the entire thing, made cover art, paid a decent amount of money for one or many of these things, they have a story and a burning passion behind every small decision. And now it’s going under a “get ready with me?”
It could be because you’re bored of seeing the idea repeated. But on a deeper level, you’re bummed that this person is putting themselves into a formula that limits their originality or sense of self. You can literally see in their eyes that they don’t mean this.
MEANING IT
But of course, we must understand what it means to “mean it” first.
There is an unconscious comfortability you present when you are doing something that feels natural to you. When you wear the clothes you are comfortable in, you aren’t thinking about your clothes. But when you have something new, it may feel a bit like a costume. This affects your posture and eye movement and potentially even your conversational pattern.
Speaking of conversational pattern, when someone uses new terms or inflections for any given reason (I do a thing where I am a bit of a sponge, and take in other people’s traits and spit them back out to them, I think it’s a wanting approval thing.) It’s the same thing. You can subconsciously tell when that’s not right for the person. (tik tok terms, dead behind eyes, etc.)
You may not understand exactly what it is right away, but something in your brain chemistry and the pheromonal balance of the two of you will not align. Building a silent wall early on that may last forever.
So what’s the lesson here? Be yourself….. I know. I’m sorry. Maybe better phrased is “do what feels right to you at all times.” *because there’s somebody wearing that outfit where it works for them and your lifestyle wouldn’t
Trying new things is one of the best parts of life. As long as you aren’t forcing it.
*by the way, if you’re thinking “hey this seems kind of sociopathic and is a weirdly calculated and performative way to think about living life.” Congratulations, you’re right. You’re still one of the normal ones. Keep it that way for as long as you can. Because the reality is, we are becoming an increasingly fabricated society, filling simulated roles that we are creating for ourselves rather than the ones that we naturally do. If any of what we are saying here resonates with you, please, please, get out of here, just go be a nurse.
Okay, so we’re not quite done actually. Now that we’re all on the same page, there is a group who have realized all of this long ago. And have mutated a new way of interacting with the world, but first:
THE BIG SPECIAL MODERN LENS
The thing is: this all has to be viewed within a very skewed POV. For most of human history we existed without the feeling of being seen. Then somewhere along the line we started dressing up for certain occasions. Then there were “I’m going out in public” outfits. You’d wear a suit to a baseball game. Completely impractical, but noble and considerate of others. This stretch of like 60 years is what I consider to be the “Goldilocks zone.” A familiar concept with Enzo readers.
But since the advent of cameras being a ubiquitous and necessary part of an everyday carry, things have started to warp. Have you seen that clip of people being interviewed outside of Return of the Jedi? They aren’t “performing” necessarily. There is an earnestness and authenticity that reads as very wholesome and human. It’s harder these days to find that. But not just on camera.
After years of selfies and vertical video making we have transitioned (generally) to a point where we are constantly aware of how we are being perceived. There is less existing and are mostly performing. Even when we are alone. We’re performing for ourselves, slowly becoming hollow ideas of people, lacking the substance underneath. And when our guard is down, and we see a photo or video of ourselves that we didn’t know was being taken, we get horrified and disgusted.
Yes. I am assuming and generalizing and putting thoughts and words in your mouth. Get out of here if you don’t like it.
One of the many problems of the constant awareness and self perception is as follows:
WEAPONIZED AUTHENTICITY (performance)
Just like your own words in court, any good thing in the world can and will be used against you by people who know how to manipulate it.
*This is not a concept we encourage. I mean, it works. But, we don’t encourage it.
Because lying/performing is commonplace, being authentic through that lens is now just another strategy. Your favorite musician who hates the system and is just fully themselves in interviews does this in a calculated and on brand way consistently.
Posturing and performatively doing things is annoying. So somebody who is trying to tip toe around and do things the right way is immensely more boring and easy to write off than somebody who sucks and is like “yeah i know i fucking suck what do you expect? This is who I am.” They can get away with more.
We have thrown away the idea of accountability because we have thrown away the idea of being people. We are ideas of each other to each other.
Being authentic is what cuts through the noise. It no longer means what it used to. It’s now a calculated choice. Instead of being true to you, how you use it is what informs the kind of person you are.
I’m ending this with a quote from The Rehearsal Season 2. “I’ve always felt that sincerity is overrated, it just ends up punishing those who can’t perform it as well as others.”