Hungry Jack
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Living and dying in 3/4 time...
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Post by Hungry Jack on Dec 11, 2016 20:11:37 GMT -8
Saying "No" to the Man.
Drinking your coffee black.
Shoveling your sidewalk every time it snows. Then shoveling for your elderly neighbor's sidewalk.
Supporting local business.
Picking up litter.
Making your family your priority.
Owning your mistakes.
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desert dweller
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Power to the Peaceful...Hate does not create.
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Post by desert dweller on Dec 11, 2016 20:26:22 GMT -8
Saying "No" to the Man. Drinking your coffee black. Shoveling your sidewalk every time it snows. Then shoveling for your elderly neighbor's sidewalk. Supporting local business. Picking up litter. Making your family your priority. Owning your mistakes. I can agree with all of that. Except for the shoveling snow thing. I'd rather not move to a place where it snows enough to have to shovel just to fulfill the authentic life concept (whatever that means).
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rebeccad
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Writing like a maniac
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Post by rebeccad on Dec 11, 2016 20:35:17 GMT -8
I'm finding this idea of an "authentic life" to be a bit weird. I'm guessing it's suppose to mean something like a "good life"? Or??
I mean, about the only way I can see to live a fake life is way too much work...but if we want a good life, I think I'll take Jer's definition.
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davesenesac
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Our precious life is short within eternity, don't waste it!
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Post by davesenesac on Dec 12, 2016 9:54:49 GMT -8
One might first consider what is the question of What Is an Authentic Life? Especially since the general term "authentic" is a narrower abstract technical term within philosophy and psychology that tends to be over generalized within pop culture media and even more so when ordinary people then try to describe what they sense it is about.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authenticity_(philosophy)
snippets:
Authenticity is a technical term used in psychology... In existentialism, authenticity is the degree to which one is true to one's own personality, spirit, or character, despite external pressures; the conscious self is seen as coming to terms with being in a material world and with encountering external forces, pressures, and influences which are very different from, and other than, itself...
One of the greatest problems facing such abstract approaches is that the drives people call the "needs of one's inner being" are diffuse, subjective and often culture bound. For this reason among others, authenticity is often "at the limits" of language; it is described as the negative space around inauthenticity, with reference to examples of inauthentic living...
(Kierkegaard, Nietzsche) “the responsibilities they place on the individual to take active part in the shaping of one’s beliefs and then to be willing to act on that belief.”...
He (Fromm) considered behavior of any kind, even that wholly in accord with societal mores, to be authentic if it results from personal understanding and approval of its drives and origins, rather than merely from conformity with the received wisdom of the society...
The concept of authenticity is often raised in the punk rock and heavy metal musical subcultures, in which people or bands are criticized for their purported lack of authenticity by being labeled with the epithet "poseur"...
The above requires understanding in the context of hierarchy of needs first described by Maslov and later evolved to:
1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc. 2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, etc. 3. Love and belongingness needs - friendship, intimacy, trust and acceptance, receiving and giving affection and love. Affiliating, being part of a group (family, friends, work). 4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc. 5. Cognitive needs - knowledge and understanding, curiosity, exploration, need for meaning and predictability. 6. Aesthetic needs - appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc. 7. Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. 8. Transcendence needs - helping others to achieve self actualization. --------------------------
For many of the world's humans, struggles with the above level 1 and 2, prevent them from even considering the higher levels leaving them resigned to make the best of an inauthentic life. As people free themselves from basic needs of level 1/2, only then can they begin to seek and consider the higher levels. Unlike the world of earlier eras, today many adults in modern Western societies and culture given freedom and modest monetary wealth, can readily explore those higher levels. In doing so they can if interested find an authentic life. However significant numbers of adults rarely consider needs above level 3 and instead tend to bob along in the flow of mainstream society and culture content to be likable with what is current acceptable, fashionable, and pleasing to others even if being so may not really be authentic to their personal essence.
David
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desert dweller
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Power to the Peaceful...Hate does not create.
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Post by desert dweller on Dec 12, 2016 10:15:01 GMT -8
Thanks for the extended clarification/definitions, David. But, it seems, to me anyway, that such behaviors are a natural progression and part of the innate structure of a conscious mind. Or, should be. Persons should naturally and unconsciously raise to those levels.
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BigLoad
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Pancakes!
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Post by BigLoad on Dec 12, 2016 10:15:30 GMT -8
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Hungry Jack
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Living and dying in 3/4 time...
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Post by Hungry Jack on Dec 12, 2016 10:25:51 GMT -8
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Hungry Jack
Trail Wise!
Living and dying in 3/4 time...
Posts: 3,809
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Post by Hungry Jack on Dec 12, 2016 10:31:48 GMT -8
In all seriousness, "authenticity" in my simpleton world is about living up to whatever values you profess to espouse. If you aspire to be the best villain in the world (think Gru) then you must devote yourself to stealing the moon. For me, making my community a better place is very important to me (mostly because I have a young son).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2016 15:40:22 GMT -8
Making the best decisions you can and then owning the consequences. No finger pointing.
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reuben
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Gonna need more Camels at the next refugio...
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Post by reuben on Dec 12, 2016 15:53:23 GMT -8
Move over, Joe Jackson. BigLoad's in town.
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Hungry Jack
Trail Wise!
Living and dying in 3/4 time...
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Post by Hungry Jack on Dec 12, 2016 20:31:14 GMT -8
The Dude >>>>>> The Man
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toejam
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Hiking to raise awareness
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Post by toejam on Dec 13, 2016 5:26:51 GMT -8
I don't feel authentic because of a crushing weight of cognitive dissonance in my life left from my upbringing and past decisions. I could run away and try to be real. But not facing up to my responsibilities would really make me a poseur, wouldn't it? So I try to live with balance and be useful to those I'm in contact with. It's probably not about how I feel anyway.
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amaruq
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Call me Little Spoon
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Post by amaruq on Dec 13, 2016 14:05:18 GMT -8
The general requirements for authentic life can be a bit blurry. Viruses are often considered to be alive; they replicate, pass on genes, and evolve by natural selection. However, they do not contain cell walls, eat/metabolize, breathe, or even die. Once I define my life, it's no longer authentic. Ah yes, Heisenberg's Life-Authenticity Principle.
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Post by mtngrl on Dec 13, 2016 14:45:47 GMT -8
I think an authentic life is living doing the things you love, but I do think it is hard to have an authentic life balancing doing the things you love and working full time, too. ....Unless you are lucky enough to work at something you really love.
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davesenesac
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Our precious life is short within eternity, don't waste it!
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Post by davesenesac on Dec 13, 2016 20:57:55 GMT -8
Gamers love playing video games. Couch potatoes love watching others on tv and movies living fantasy lives. Drug addicts love taking drugs. Gamblers love going to Vegas and yanking down one-armed bandits. Lots of adults are compulsive shoppers on most of their day's off, loving the sport of possessing material goods. Internet porn addicts compulsively enjoy adult sites. Those playing the Moloch Game love reveling in war and battle. Many lives are endlessly seeking fame as they love to inflate ego.
It is thus obvious that if one defines authenticity broadly as things people doing the things they like to do then its meaning loses any moral and ethical worth. That is one reason I posted a couple times attempting to provide links to understand what is obviously a difficult term. Does morality and ethics in any way qualify what an authentic life can be? Is finding one's authentic self worthwhile if that results in unparalleled permissiveness, narcissism, hedonism, potential nihilism, or a list of evils? Accordingly philosophers for decades have considerably criticized seeking of authenticity in the broad pop psychology sense and rather have devoted stacks of books debating how authenticity to have value actually ought to more narrowly be defined with ethics and morality. Try reading some of this without falling asleep:
www.academia.edu/2522794/Review_of_Charles_Taylor_The_Ethics_of_Authenticity
In that sense desertdweller was most correct among posters IMO by simply stating:
The question doesn't make sense to me.
And my own terse post earlier up the thread was a sarcastic attempt to reflect its vague nonsense while acknowledging there are some positive values in personal quests seeking authenticity.
David
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