The Merits of Authenticity

 

Life is tumultuous and often a cruel teacher of the humanities. We emerge as babes, and some us remain such somehow unafflicted by the chaos that living upon this Earth generates. Society instructs us to hide our true nature and intent from the world in hopes that somehow we will emerge from life unscathed by the ambitions of others. In practice, we don masks of conformity to assimilate into a society of imposters. Each plays a role designed to fool others, and often many of us forget who we were before we began the masquerade. We establish norms for a society that in no way reflect our actual values and cheapen the lives that all of us lead.
Those that seek to break the mold as has been the case throughout history find themselves shunned for their efforts. If you dare to present the truth, you are ridiculed and attacked by most in equal measure. A society built upon deception is often threatened by the integrity of those audacious enough to dare to dream of a better world. Those that don’t follow the norm in societal structure and dare to behave honorably find themselves labeled, to dehumanize further, and marginalize their standing so that they won’t be heard or even believed.
The insecure nature of the human beast is responsible for this hatred of purity. Honesty is the adversary of an insincere society. Some would seek to shield others from pain by distorting their perceptions of reality. This only prolongs the suffering of those that are operating upon misinformation. When finally, the truth is discovered the cumulative effect of that lie and its impact on the decisions made will cause far more significant harm than an uncomfortable truth. There are no ‘white lies.’ Only facts and falsehoods exist, and no lie is excusable; good intentions carried out with deception are never ethical.
The people that cloak themselves in multiple layers of deception would have you believe that because ‘everyone’ else is engaging in immature facades that this somehow insulates them from moral culpability. Many of the greatest tragedies in history have been perpetrated by the majority preying upon a small minority that lacked the standing and strength to defend themselves from the aggressions of the raging mobs. This does not mean that the mob was correct in forcing its values upon unwilling participates. It merely means that they lacked intellectual courage, integrity, and moral fortitude and embraced base emotions and behaved as animals rather than the highly evolved creatures we are said to be.
The moral fabric of our country and many others is a facade. Too many pretend to be all the right things while never actually becoming the people that we should all aspire to be. This doesn’t mean we all set off in search of sainthood. It means we should treat each other with fundamental respect, and have the moral courage to speak our minds and be who we are. We shouldn’t allow petty differences and insecurities that we possess to override our principles or our integrity. We owe the truth to each other. Children tell lies because they lack the maturity to face the consequences of truth. As a society, we have become trapped in the viscera of a womb that engulfs the Earth.

 

 

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