[lbo-talk] "The Authentic"? was ....Grappling....

[Miles Jackson]

Chris Doss wrote:
> 
> Last post for day. Doug's watchin' me! Hmmm, maybe
> he's at jury duty... ;)
> 
> Examples of inathenticity (lack of coincidence of
> perceived and actual life-possibilities):
> 
> The woman who perennially deceives herself about her
> husband's serial infidelity.
> 
> The parents who abuse their children and are then
> surprised when their progeny shun them in old age.
> 
> The person who again and again tries to solve their
> peoblems by following the latest fad, without
> addressing the actual reasons for their problems (my
> ex-girlfriend's mom comes to mind).
> 
> The soldier who steps on the battlefield absolutely
> sure that he's not going to die, because death is
> "something that happens to other people."
> 
> Hell, by this point practically anybody who is still
> holding on to the neocon fantasy about Iraq is
> probably being inauthentic. ;)
> 

So lack of Erschlossenheit is--practically speaking--a term of 
opprobrium for people who interpret their life situation in ways that 
seem implausible and/or inappropriate to you?  The ethnocentrism and 
presentism of this is just breathtaking to me: should we define an 
Azande tribesman as "inauthentic" because he makes confident predictions 
about the future based on chicken entrails?  The assumption that we can 
nonproblematically and categorically determine "actual" life 
possibilities so that we can identify how people just don't match up to 
our privileged insight into how they should act is a wonderful example 
of philosophical hubris.

Miles