One of our political parties is looking at the attribute ‘authenticity’ to strengthen their political approach. The challenge with authenticity is that it is nearly impossible to fake or predict. Our current leader is probably where he is because he is who he is and acts like it. He is very predictable if you don’t try to anticipate his behavior or specific decisions, but rather concentrate on his personality which has settled into a relatively simple set of privatized, self serving principles and rules. Self-interest is almost always “authentically” expressed in general but completely unpredictable in particular.  Faux authenticity is never a strategy that can be predicted in specific because all of us, authentic or inauthentic, can have a bad days or nights.  A bad night’s sleep frequently generates a state of moodiness.  What we all share is that smoke-of-mood that lies between the mystery-of-our-being, (sometimes called subjectivity) and our next decision.  The betrayal of the goodness of faux authenticity lies with how integrity plays into the decision.

 We are currently living under the strain and spell of a moody, authoritarian government making nearly fully unexamined decisions straight from the gut.  These kinds of ruling regimes make casino like decisions out of moods of optimism or pessimism and consequently need enforcement services to iron out their mistakes. This authoritarianism is a form of faux authentic without being good. Good in governance can only be supporting structures cooperation and connection, the foundation survival attributes of the human species.

A modest proposal for good

Genuine authenticity is witnessing the shifting patterns of your own moods and taking the pains necessary to adapt your responses to support connection and cooperation.  This nation has been authentically severed in half and what good is that?  How can a nation disconnected and at war with itself cooperate, sustain, and thrive? The work of cognition in true authenticity is where the raw material of our subjectivity separates the good and the bad despite the distractions of mood.  The cognition of authenticity necessary for integrity can be difficult and complex, not because we are too stupid to make it simple, but because cooperation and connection over millions of years turned out to be our human species primary survival skill set. Unfortunately our brains are equally capable of the spite and malice that could spell our end which is why things are so complicated. The pure unadulterated, private, self interested fantasy of this nation as ‘great again’ is an authentic aberration of true authenticity’s survival strategy.  For the sake of the next generations, lets’ survive, as that would be good.