“Authenticity is acting in accordance with one’s true self, and being authentic means behaving in congruence with one’s values, beliefs, motives, and personality dispositions” Theo Tsaousides.
I have been informed that my link to the Berkley Well-Being site didn’t work, so here it is again (link). To again reinforce my reasons for focusing on the humanities side of sustainability is that without wisdom guiding us in these intense technological beliefs of saving the world by the hierarchy. We are merely heading down the road to a dark future if we don’t take up the mantle and do it for ourselves. And to do that we need to believe in ourselves and stop letting the hierarchy making us feel inadequate. We as individuals have amazing abilities and as a collective can come together at the local levels and make the difference to change the world to what we all know is one we want.
Feelings of Inadequacy permeate all areas of our lives so that the willingness to let technocrats make major decisions for us all is easy to do. Becoming authentic doesn’t mean we become perfect or everything gets done right all the time. It’s more about believing in ourselves and accepting that these around us can do the same (see link). I think it also creates a willingness to use wisdom instead of believing that ‘science’ has the only truths. It helps us see through the myths of scientism (e.g, see earlier post). I have been both a ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ scientist all my life and see clearly how human insecurity and scientists’ feelings of inadequacy lead to serious misinterpretations of knowledge that ignore wise debate (i.e. scientists are just fallible humans yet the media seem to endow them with God-like powers). Literally every day, I read, “Scientists say …”, or Scientists discover …” as if the scientists were some kind of priests with powers of discernment imbued to them by the Gods. The same seems true for economists and ‘medical doctors.’
Don’t get me wrong, they know a lot of stuff and we advance societally because of their research work, but when you truly understand the process of science, it becomes obvious that it is meant to be a continual and open discourse between scholars seeking truth. The reality has been marred by economic interests and ego needs stemming from inadequacy. Knowing a lot doesn’t stop you feeling inadequate, which might explain the many egocentric ‘science’ voices out in the mass media pushing their views. It takes discernment to pick out the authentic ones from the egocentric publicity seeking ones.
Authentic people admit when they are wrong. It’s not that this means they are more honest, just that they see failure as a point of growth and learning. Egocentric ones rarely do if they can avoid doing so. Think of how all the media and our societal expectations talk about failure as something to be avoided at all costs. When I worked in the lab, I recall how many times the experiments didn’t go as expected. The key to it all was knowing enough to understand why it didn’t work and what to do next. For every big breakthrough, there are months, even years, when tiny discoveries led the way to a greater understanding – that’s how the scientific process is meant to work. The next step, we have ignored forever, is using wisdom to discern whether a discovery is in the benefit of life and not just an economic benefit. It is s cruel joke to believe that science is neutral.
Authentic people tend to be wiser, and hence more mindful, and more discerning of knowledge (see link). When I refer to wisdom, I don’t mean articulated insight in which something unique is revealed – the Aha moments. Rather it is embodied discernment in which a “wise person discerns good from bad, right from wrong, appropriate from inappropriate, better from worse, and favorable from unfavorable, as well as many other differences, in a way that foolish people can’t” using internal judgment and understanding.
Philosopher Tom Morris states: “Knowledge without wisdom, just like action without wisdom, can take a person, or an organization, off the rails as quickly as anything. Because of this, as well as for many more reasons, we ought to be hiring for wisdom, training for wisdom, promoting wisdom, and encouraging it in every way we can, in business, politics, and our personal lives. Any other course is, of course, unwise”
When I talk about a Sustainable Future I am not talking about a more simplistic lifestyle, although that might be nice compared to the rat-race it currently seems. I’m talking about having the time and ability to relax and enjoy life with people around you that bring Love, Joy and Harmony into all our lives. Does that mean as we all express our unique sovereign authentic selves that we will no longer have “negative” feelings? Well, no, but negative is really a subjective misnomer. Feelings are just that, feelings with no positive or negative except that which we ascribe to them.
Another hurdle I see to becoming authentic is this expectation that we will have some kind of perfect harmony with relationships. Reality check, people are people, and we still will still have to live with a diversity of personalities. The big difference when we are authentic is that we will be able to cope and respond to circumstances with feelings much more successfully without the feelings of inadequacy that promote subconscious reactivity!
For instance, when I was younger and someone would get me riled up with their petty pretentiousness, I would react defensively. Now I just look at them and decide whether to simply walk away and leave them to their pettiness, or I might have a calm and controlled discussion without the need to defend myself in any way to try and understand why they are so ‘up-tight.’ I now understand that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ things happen (that’s life), and what really matters is how I respond – can I control the outcome or do I just let what happens unfold until I find an internal balance point of some kind? My goal is to find a place of peace within myself to accept and choose what is happening and to help alleviate the difficulties if I can. It’s a lot like finding the internal place described by the Desiderata and If poems I talked about in the last post. Something we can do if we intend it for ourselves!
To Be Continued …………………
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