Authentic Orange

Being authentic is a trait individuals are losing in today’s society. We see people out in the streets glued to their iphones not even trying to connect with those that pass them by. To go out into society and be authentic first the individual must become aware of themselves. In order for one to start becoming more authentic they must first realize what their current situation is; a state of mind that Sartre called “in-itself” and a “for-self” state (4/9) . So what does that mean? The in-itself is to realize that choices you make will, and do, affect you in a way that you will have no control over or are unaware of. The for-self is to be conscious of the choices you have made and to be confident that you truly made the choice for yourself because there was a motive to do so. Once these two concepts are realized then one can go on to make decisions that come from ones needs. This however is easier said than done, because another factor comes into play which is fear.

Fear doesn’t present itself in a physical form but more of a fear created in a persons mind. Fear to have freedom will create an inner conflict on whether a choice about to be made is the right or wrong choice to do. To truly be authentic it is up to the individual to make that decision. Every decision made by oneself will always affect that individual. Another way to put it is, again, through Sartre’s words, ” Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” (5/28). Realizing that whatever we will to do is entirely up to us will get rid of that ambiguity of a right or wrong choice and open our eyes to see which decision is truly best. What is determined to be right from wrong is up to the individuals values; what he/she beliefs in terms of politics, sustainability, ethics, religion, socioeconomic status, etc. There is also that fear of what others will think, a fear I believe defines who is truly authentic or not when speaking of college students.

The clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the phones we have, and the class we take make up who a college student appears to be. Being surrounded by so many individuals it often takes a while to realize who the authentic individuals are. The authentic ones do not base their actions on what others will think or say about them. An individual who does not like to listen to a particular genre of music who surrounds themselves with individuals who do and informs them that they love that genre is lying to themselves and is being inauthentic. This was a concept known as bad faith(5/26). Bad faith is when we deny our transcendence and our facility component of  our existence, the it-self and for-self, which would be lying to yourself in order to feel acceptance. An authentic person will go on in their lives doing what they like to do while disregarding what others might think of their actions. Authenticity can be reached once the inner fear is removed, this fear is holding back a person because one isn’t even sure if a choice will end the way we believe or not. In The Encounter with Nothingness a line hits this point dead on, “Most of the time dangerous or threatening situations present themselves in different perspectives; they will be apprehended through a feeling of fear or of anguish according to whether we envisage the situation as acting on the man or the man acting on the situation.” (117). Simply put it, to be authentic become conscious of yourself and surroundings and then remove that fear of what if.