[Main Blog Post] The Trouble with Authenticity

[jprussell]

I've been trying to write this one for months, but I didn't actually have anything new or useful to say, and then the other day, I read a book review, and it's way of defining a seemingly unrelated topic gave me the key I needed to put it all together.

So, what is the Trouble With Authenticity?

Read on to find out!

Comments

[causticus]

So you had your major TSW moment! Literally jolted out of materialism, eh?

What you wrote makes a ton of sense on why LARPing is so rampant amount hardline recons, and I guess with the general state of religion today. So many people have no real belief in anything non-material, but there's certain social advantages that come from play-acting something resembling a religion.

While I was never that hardcore of a materialist back before I had any solid metaphysical beliefs, I never took spirituality that seriously until I had a few very weird experiences of my own.

TSW indeed.

[jprussell]

Yeah, it was... not subtle, but also entirely subjective. I gained a lot of insight into what folks have meant all down the ages about ineffable experiences that you can't confirm outside of yourself or properly explain to other folks.

And I think you're right about folks not having belief in anything non-material, but maybe even more important is a lack of gnosis - before my unexpected and memorable experience while meditating, I literally didn't know what the heck religious folks were talking about. I knew about what they were talking about, but I didn't truly know what I was missing by not getting it.

At any rate, these days, technically, I still accept the possibility that all of this might be within me and not evidence of how reality is outside of my own mind, but I have no counter-evidence either, and believing it's real gives me a better life, so it's not a hard choice.