In this 2021 essay, ‘An Epidemic of Inauthenticity,’ a contributor named Olivia Pool writes:
‘Human beings need each other, and we need authentic connection. We are meant to live in a community, and each community member shines in their particular way. This is incredibly important and necessary for the tribe. If the community is full of people who are holograms, how do you create and maintain true and lasting connections with each other? How do you have a true, connected, loving partnership with someone else if neither of you are your true selves? How do you build lasting businesses and thriving economies if no one is real?… You may think I’m overreacting. Perhaps I am. I hope I am. I hope we intervene with gargantuan authenticity and never get to this place of massive disconnection. The solution, in my opinion—is truly loving yourself just as you are, and loving others just as they are. Lovely sentence. Sounds simple. It is simple. But simple and easy are different things. In a world where we are constantly told how to be, what to think or do, being yourself is a revolutionary act.’
I like this.