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Great points. I think fundamentally you and I have different operating definitions of authenticity. Though I do want to clarify > The systemization of everyt

by kortex 3y ago

Great points. I think fundamentally you and I have different operating definitions of authenticity. Though I do want to clarify > The systemization of everything (through what you call "radical self-expression") is creating a bunch of pseudo-intellectual naval gazing That's not my term, it's a burner term, and has nothing to do with systematization. The Ten Principles are a set of descriptive (not proscriptive) observations about what makes a Burn different from other festival-like gatherings [0]. > fundamentally a simple topic. Authentic people are honest people. You can often tell right away who is lying and who is not. The computer in your head has hundreds of thousands of years of evolution to help you with that. This is probably the neurospicy rearing it's head. I understand what you mean about "fundamentally a simple topic". But in a lot of ways, it's not simple. To a first order approximation, yes "honesty about who you are" is tantamount to authenticity. Because for most folks, "who you are" is a fairly fixed concept, so being honest (or dishonest) about it is straightforward. But I don't think having a fixed concept of self is a universal experience. For me, (when I'm at my full potential) I'm able to select and deselect attributes of myself to express. Tl;dr - "masking" making defining "authenticity" challenging for neurodivergent folks. https://burningman.org/about/10-principles/ https://burningman.org/about/10-principles/

zer8k 3y ago
> Tl;dr - "masking" making defining "authenticity" challenging for neurodivergent folks. Understood > But I don't think having a fixed concept of self is a universal experience. For me, (when I'm at my full potential) I'm able to select and deselect attributes of myself to express. I don't think anyone has a true "self". I am not who I was 10 years ago and neither are you. Physically, sure. Mentally? Metaphysically? Absolutely not. People you interact with aren't stagnant by definition. If they were, you wouldn't be interacting with them. Where the honesty (and the authenticity) comes into play is where who you are now is who you are representing. As for selecting and deselecting traits I don't think this is inauthentic. It's normal, actually, in that people do this to create connections. I like to think of it like a handshake. We each kind of discuss things we like, we eventually arrive in some consistent state, and now we're "connected". We are still authentic (in that we are still honest) but we have selected certain traits of ours that are similar enough to foster a relationship. Of course, the inauthentic person can exploit this by just replaying back what they hear. This usually doesn't last long though. Someone too similar also raises red flags. An authentic person, IMO, will present with things you like and things you don't like. The balance of that is what makes the relationship between the two. Admitting what appear to be a negative (I don't like X, I think X) is actually a good indicator of an honest person.

by kortex 3y ago

zer8k 3y ago

> Tl;dr - "masking" making defining "authenticity" challenging for neurodivergent folks. Understood > But I don't think having a fixed concept of self is a universal experience. For me, (when I'm at my full potential) I'm able to select and deselect attributes of myself to express. I don't think anyone has a true "self". I am not who I was 10 years ago and neither are you. Physically, sure. Mentally? Metaphysically? Absolutely not. People you interact with aren't stagnant by definition. If they were, you wouldn't be interacting with them. Where the honesty (and the authenticity) comes into play is where who you are now is who you are representing. As for selecting and deselecting traits I don't think this is inauthentic. It's normal, actually, in that people do this to create connections. I like to think of it like a handshake. We each kind of discuss things we like, we eventually arrive in some consistent state, and now we're "connected". We are still authentic (in that we are still honest) but we have selected certain traits of ours that are similar enough to foster a relationship. Of course, the inauthentic person can exploit this by just replaying back what they hear. This usually doesn't last long though. Someone too similar also raises red flags. An authentic person, IMO, will present with things you like and things you don't like. The balance of that is what makes the relationship between the two. Admitting what appear to be a negative (I don't like X, I think X) is actually a good indicator of an honest person.