You Can’t Buy an Authentic Self

[BackToLurk]

I’ve long held the view that much of identity politics, including gender identity politics, owes a lot to late stage capitalism. It’s often very much about the primacy of the individual. I found this interesting in relation to the role of corporations in selling ‘authentic selves’ to transpeople, and packaging it as inclusivity.

Freya is apparently a ‘voice of Gen Z feminism.’

https://www.freyaindia.co.uk/p/you-cant-buy-an-authentic-self

"The concept of happiness shifted from a matter of divine luck and external fortune in ancient times to a personal right and internal state of well-being in the modern era"

I don't know where this quote is from.

Agree that the modern concept of- and relentless pursuit of- happiness is really unhelpful.

My kids are young adults and I have tried to instill in them the understanding that happiness is just an emotion like all the other emotions and no one should expect to be in that state permanently. Furthermore, there is certainly no right to it. We’re just animals after all, and our only purpose for being here is simply to survive as long as possible and reproduce. Everything else is a bonus. Hopefully we will be lucky enough to experience happiness and joy many times throughout our lives, but we can’t demand it and we certainly can’t buy it.

I think 'living authentically' can be understood in the context of not having to comply with social expectations, but if you live in an OECD country it has never been easier to live a real life free from discrimination, while conversely it has never been more possible to present a heavily curated self image to others through social media.

Indeed - when Anne Boleyn chose ‘the most happy’ as her motto it was in the sense of blessed or fortunate, not describing how she felt.

But people did talk about feelings of happiness, joy or contentment. Variously Confucius, Buddha, Zeno and others. Not in the sense of something that denotes being fortunate, but in the sense of coming from living well (usually in a broad altruistic sense). This is the opposite of "buy this and be happy". The point is you can't.

I know a Holocaust Survivor. He is nearly 100 years old, I have known him for many years. He is only just beginning to understand ‘unhappiness’. He has never remembered being unhappy, not even during WW2. Angry, afraid, contrary, but never unhappy. He always said that he is too busy to feel unhappy. Even sadness at losing friends and family has been temporary.

Now, in extreme old age, as his ability to engage with the world is diminishing, now he begins to understand unhappiness. He has never sought happiness; he has simply engaged with his world. He has sought pleasure in achievement, in learning, in culture. But the sense of “I need X to be happy” has been totally alien to him - until he lost the ability to engage.

He is an extraordinary role model and exemplar of resilience.