Is this the beginning of a backlash against self-awareness?
December 26, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter
NYT guest columnist Orlando Patterson, a Harvard professor of sociology states:
Authenticity now dominates our way of viewing ourselves and our relationships, with baleful consequences. Within sensitive individuals it breeds doubt; between people it promotes distrust; within groups it enhances group-think in the endless quest to be one with the group’s true soul; and between groups it is the inner source of identity politics.
The author writes of a "cult of authenticity" that provides an excuse for poor leadership and a weak response to bigotry and racism. He is much more concerned with the less ambiguous sincerity, civility and what he calls "Shakespeare's looking glass self" which are woefully lacking in interactions and relationships.
I think he makes some excellent points, particularly about how the norms of sincerity and civility have served society for centuries. I know I miss them. But although our individual and collective egos are resisting it, the world has changed, the old boundaries are gone and we can't go back. The more, and the faster things change, people will look for things to identify with, and even call that self-awareness. I don't think its surprising that cult-speak is emerging, but its important to discern that from true self-awareness, and to do so without judgment for the stages we all go through in our desire to be better human beings.