Identity and Authenticity.

By definition, identity is “being who or what a person is". Authenticity, is “the art of being of undisputed origin and not a copy; being genuine”.

How can such easily definable things seem so elusive?

Identity is arguably who you are today standing up on your own two feet. Is this something we take for granted? Is one of the main reasons that we can maintain a connection to our identify because we’ve never had any reason to fear it being taken from us? What would happen if your country, your hometown, your community, your family home was under attack and displacement. The things and people you grew up with, the schools you began your education in, the social constructs within which you were formed, what if all that was obliterated in the morning. Would we still have connection to our identity? Like most things in life, is it only when something is threatened or being taken off you, that we realize how much we take it for granted.

The definition of authenticity suggests it’s a kind of art form, something that is cultivated. From a place of secure identify, authenticity can flourish. Could the way that our world is moving, in so many ways, see the near obliteration of these two inextricable concepts?

When war, nuclear power, gender based violence, the rising popularity of nationalism or sectionalism, bigotry, racism and misogyny rage all around us in what feels like every corner of the world, coupled with an endless barrage of media coverage conflated by algorithms and artificial intelligence, is it even possible to stay true to our identify? Let alone carve out a path of authenticity?

There is a Carl Jung quote that I have always loved, that is “the privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are”. I fear that in the world we live in today, that privilege is more precarious than it ever has been before. I don’t know what you think, but to me, it feels like we are moving further and further away from our acceptance of our own identities and our acceptance of the identities of others, let alone a gratitude for them and a desire to cultivate and let it flourish into an authenticity that the world might need or benefit from.

I think, we’re going to have to fight for it.

Why?

Because, we are in a world where some teenage girls are being forced to stay home from school, forced out of their right to education (if they even had it in the first place) and forced into arranged marriages, while at the same time other teenage girls are being told that their most pressing concern is to make sure they have the perfect filler lips, clear skin and symmetrical face.

A world where some teenage boys are being drafted into militias or armies to fight a war they did not cause, while at the same time, other teenage boys are being told they must step up and be a “man”, they must dominate, and be masculine, must exert influence wherever possible and run an empire and a family and not be left behind as some forgotten loser.

Then, as we get a little older, women face in to societal indifference, irrelevance or invisibility. Men face into such isolation or control it can crush them from the inside out.

I feel that in todays world, to wake up every day and try pull ourselves out from under the fog of the media frenzy and the horror of our global, political and technological landscapes - and remember what it is to be human, and to treat others the same, is a fight worth fighting.

To try and place our hands back on our hearts and engage our minds to decipher “who am I” and perhaps even more importantly “who am I becoming”, and to chose to step in to that power day after day has a healing potential that we haven’t fully uncovered yet. Perhaps its never before been tested in the way its being tested now. Perhaps it’s just what the world right now needs.

Socrates once said “Know thyself”. It says a lot about the state of the world, when one of life's age old struggles since approximately 470 - 399 BC (to know ourselves and to find and connect with our identity), has the potential to be surpassed by the constant daily threat on that very struggle itself. Even if we’re lucky and privileged enough to be able to work on that connection to our identify - our world today is designed to drive us further and further away from it day after day after day.

I don’t think it’s dramatic to say, we’re going to have to fight for it. We have to fight to find it, we have to fight to keep it, and we have to fight to stay true to it and cultivate it on a daily basis.

The good news? I think it’s a fight worth fighting. The world needs you at your most authentic self. I truly believe that. Parts of life these days are purposefully set up to take you further and further away from that truth. Don’t let it happen. Fight like hell, and be grateful for the privilege of being able to do it. For we all know, far too well, that a lot of people in the world right now are not bring afforded the same opportunity. Perhaps if we are very lucky, your authenticity in turn or in time might bring support, comfort or relief to others who need it the most.