Darren Daz Cox, now in Pekin Illinois!
Authentic vs Sincere
One of the people I’m connected with on Twitter, pronoiapierce, has a nice quality blog with original movies, great CSS and a goal of making a professional documentary ( I think!). I like the set up of this site, having a good quality movie interview start the conversation is a fine idea. I really enjoyed the brief talk with Sidney Levy on Authenticity vs. Sincerity but then read the authors comment "Is authenticity a commodity now over sincerity?".
A commodity?? After watching the Life In Perpetual Beta promo-movie it became clear that the goal of the site was to simply get rich and look good getting there, as when you are rich you don’t have to worry and while you’re getting rich it’s better to be considered creative, business-creative, not necessarily creative-creative.
It’s almost as if the author, Melissa Pierce, wants to have no opinion or rather keep her personal opinion out of it like a news anchor, just have the authority and the look. People assume that the news anchor isn’t an idiot, after all they must be special to be in that position, so if you get in that position you will be special. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this but when the author becomes a perfect example of the subject matter it’s an opportunity to look at ourselves.
Authenticity vs. Sincerity.
As an artist I completely understand the difference between authenticity and sincerity.
As a person raised on ‘punk rock’ I have made a firm stand to be authentic first, and sincere second.
Authenticity doesn’t have to be “good” but sincerity does.
When do you use the word sincerely? mostly on letters where you are trying to present yourself as professional, competent or knowledgeable etc, not as you really are, all those things and a lot worse!
Authenticity is often associated with weirdness, rebellion and may even be a threat to the status quo. These days Billy Idol is far more sincere than authentic, you pay his manager and he’ll play your venue (or his lawyer will settle with your lawyer etc) but there was a time when he was authentic.
Billy Idol was one of the first punk rockers, it was his (and his friends etc) vision, imagination and courage that propelled the Sex Pistols to fame and started a whole new offshoot of music and culture and rules were made to be broken, just listen to the five minute guitar solo at the end of Generation X’s song Youth Youth Youth, it’s not Jimi Hendrix competent, it’s too long and wanky to be “radio friendly” (you never heard it right?) but it’s authentic as hell!
Our modern society is often too sincere for it’s own good, heck, as competent, knowledgeable and professional Melissa’s fine blog is, all I know about the author is that she feels that something is lacking! What’s lacking is the freedom to fail in my opinion. Allow yourself to learn from setting up huge goals and dreams, not just business strategies to steadily accumulate contacts and wealth. Ditch the traditional coffee cup motif of dedicated business competence and do something unique!
I’m not suggesting you run down to a hip boutique and buy some sincere punk rock merchandise, so you look different, just don’t try so hard to be sincere, as you are already authentic but you are suppressing it!!!!
Originally posted 2008-06-06 06:47:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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June 6th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Man, Darren. I love this post. Sincerely. Authentically. I really needed to read this today. Can I be your fan?!
I struggle with these issues all the time.
You’re right. We need the freedom to fail. I have failed, though, and it affects my self esteem. Society tells us that we must always be successful. But who defines success?
Maybe the mark of a successful person is one who cares enough about others. And to care for others you at first need to care for yourself.
Hey, thanks again for this. Great post.
Ellen Wilsons last blog post..Writing the Wild Within: Part 4 – Standing Out From the Crowd
June 6th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Hi Ellen, I think it’s better to have some failures under your belt than to not have tried things, especially if those things are your dreams!
June 8th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I love your free spirit…it shows in your art and your words!!
I caught up on your posts and enjoyed each one!
When I first started my blog someone left a comment encouraging me to continue. Here is a little snippet of what they said:
“I like that you are authentic, radically authentic to be more accurate”
At first, I didn’t know how to take it, but now I like it. Authentic is a good thing…eh? I see authenticity in you!
gypsy-hearts last blog post..Expand and Live!
June 9th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Thanks Gypsy, I think it is easier to see and feel what is authentic over what is merely sincere when you are an artist
Sincere is catering to the wishes of your audience, sometimes we do art that we know will be appreciated but authenticity requires you use a personal standard of excellence.
You can see a more subtle version in the Sistine chapel too, at first Michelangelo wanted to complete the assignment more than make a statement, and the ceiling, while one of most amazing things ever in the history of art, is sincere but patchy in ‘quality’.
The Sistine chapel ceiling is like a bootleg greatest hits cd where the good and semi-good are lumped together, you tend to skip over the parts you don’t enjoy as much. But the Last Judgment, painted several years later on the back wall, is a cohesive statement, it shows the passion, it was not painted to show off his talent or to please the pope, it was painted to get the feelings out of him, he, and God were the audience – that’s authentic!
June 9th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Hi there and thanks for stopping by my little piece of the Blogworld!
I really love this post, for very personal reasons. Ever since reading “Something More – Excavating Your Authentic Self” about 6-7 years ago, the lions share of my personal work has had to do with being Authentic. Authencity, to me, is about being True to the Essence of who I am…not who I think someone else wants me to be – not who I was raised to think I should be – not even who I think GOD wants me to be (although I really like Her true thoughts about me! LOL)
I think that I must take a different viewpoint on the word “sincere”, however. To me, sincerity is about HONESTY and TRUTHFULNESS. When I am being sincere, it means that nothing fake or effected is going on…I truly mean what I am say or doing, in moments of ‘sincerity’.
But I liked seeing this from a fresh perspective
thanks for that!
Graces last blog post..As It Is In Heaven
June 9th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
thanks Grace, the absolute most important thing to me is to give you the chance to express your opinion, I am very happy you did not agree 100% with what I wrote, as now I can see myself from a new perspective.
Our system of language leaves so much to interpretation, after all, if sincere is identical to honest, then sincere means holding back on your personal opinion as to not hurt other peoples feelings. As a society we have decided that honesty is not what we truly want from strangers when we meet in the street.
The truth is not something most people talk about face to face, no one expects ‘the truth’ at a business, even when we ask people how they are we don’t really expect ‘the truth’ do we? We want to sound like we are concerned, and we do care on an abstract level, but that’s the difference between being sincere and the truth.
We expect sincerity from society, from the server being polite at the restaurant to the clerk at the store not frowning at you for buying things that are ‘bad’ for you.