Authentic Orange

Submitted by Eric Nygren

Here at Oregon State University the students, faculty and alumni pride themselves on their effort to “Be Orange”. However, many people have different opinions on what it means to authentically “Be Orange”. For some people, being orange means showing up to as many sporting events as possible to support the school’s athletic teams. For others, being orange means becoming involved in the many extracurricular opportunities offered at Oregon State. Can either be said to be the one authentic way to “Be Orange”? Let us start by defining what authenticity is, before applying this concept to the idea of being orange.

What is authenticity? Authenticity, simply put, is truth. Truth has been said to be “A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms” (Nietszche, Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense). The act of being true to one’s own self defines an authentic person. Thereby, a person who is authentically being orange is one to whom being orange is their true self, or at least part of their true self. However, as Nietzsche puts it: “Man has an invincible inclination to allow himself to be deceived.” (Nietzsche, Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense). There are those out there who have allowed themselves to think that what they are doing to “Be Orange” is authentic to them, when in reality it is not. An example of this might be if someone goes to a football game to cheer on Oregon State, even though they do not particularly enjoy sporting events and do not care for football at all. They would be denying their own facticity by supporting a program they care nothing about, a form of bad faith (Lecture 5/26/15). Alternatively, they could also have shown bad faith by denying their own transcendence if they had told themselves the reason they were going was because they actually enjoy the sporting event, since it benefits the university (Lecture 5/26/15). If that same person were to be authentic to themselves, they would not have gone to the sporting event and instead maybe have gone to a club meeting, or done some other activity which would have benefitted the university just as much.

Now comes the question of how one may authentically “Be Orange”. It appears to be generally accepted within the community at Oregon State that to “Be Orange” means to show support for the university and its programs. In this way, it could be said that being orange refers to performing an action which directly benefits the school. How does one authentically provide benefit to Oregon State University? There are many different ways to do so, a few of which have already been mentioned. In addition to these, other possible ways to “Be Orange” include: monetary donations to the university, participating in an event which brings notoriety and respect to the university and its programs, providing scholarship money to individuals attending Oregon State, and lastly being a successful and well-respected alumnus within society so as to bring recognition through one’s own actions.

All of the aforementioned ways to “Be Orange” are certainly ways that any person may accomplish, but in order for them to be authentic, they must be reflective of that person’s true self. If a person does not enjoy an action they take to “Be Orange” then they are not being authentic to themselves. A person must freely take actions to “Be Orange”, otherwise they are not holding themselves responsible to their authentic self.