Authentic Orange

Submitted by Aaron Streblow

We live in rapidly changing culture. With the arrival of new technologies and ways to communicate information, human lives are becoming increasingly less and less private. As a result a new word has arisen out of the works and it plays a roll in the lives and decisions of countless people. This word is trendy. Being trendy, or in other words: up to date in the most popular styles and fads, is not intrinsically evil; however, when not taken lightly, this mode of being may become inauthentic. As aspiring OSU students in today’s culture, we find ourselves in the thick of all these pressures to keep up with what is trending, and anxieties to conform to predesigned molds. Our authenticity, that is, our complete embracement of our true and genuine selves, is on the line each and every moment of the day. Many, if not most, students would say that they wish to live their lives here at OSU authentically. The question is how? Here are a few guidelines derived from philosophers studied this year by students in PHL 150 that will assist all those striving to authentically “Be Orange”.

Some of the most important decisions a student will make over the course of college are what subject to study, and what activity(ies) to participate. At a school where about one fourth of the student body studies engineering according to the 2014 enrollment summary, and at a school where certain extracurricular activities such as Greek life are widely popular, it can be easy for students to follow the crowd and join what’s trendy. Friedrich Nietzsche would call this mode of action our herd instinct (Lecture, 5/5/15). We feel shame when we act out against what others value, whether that be our peers, or our parents, or our friends, and so we tend to act our lives according to those values and attempt to adopt them as our own. Similarly, Søren Kierkegaard explains that if individuals act according to the crowd, then individual passion and truth is lost because one gives up partial responsibility with their decisions. To yield to external pressures and not follow one’s own character is a problem that impedes one from living authentically. To truly become authentic, one must reflect deeply about one’s self and follow their own path for their studies and activities. To test whether one’s current mode of life is authentic, the Nietzsche’s universal morality test known as “Eternal Recurrence” can be applied (Lecture, 6/2/15). To pass the test and declare “Amor fati” and that one’s fate is a fate worth reliving forever confirms morality and authenticity. In the end, it is up to the individual to take the initiative towards a personally authentic path. However, this initiative can sometimes be an obstacle.

As a student striving to authentically “Be Orange” we are our own greatest hurdles towards authenticity. According to Jean-Paul Sartre, we are all “condemned to be free” (Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism). We are conscious beings; we are Being-For-itself; we are free to make our own choices but we are condemned to always bear the responsibility of the consequences of these choices. However, we do not always accept our freedom as truth and often times we lie to ourselves in order to escape the responsibilities of our freedom. Sartre calls this Bad Faith and it is what he considers inauthentic being (Lecture, 5/26/15). The most common way that we try to escape our responsibility, escape our freedom and deceive ourselves is through procrastination. Procrastination is about choice, and if we choose to procrastinate, then procrastination may begin to define our very being. This effort to escape immediate responsibilities is a futile attempt. No matter how small the task, procrastination leads to an inauthentic being. The key to solving procrastination is through taking responsibility for our lives and owning up to our choices. If we consciously choose to do one thing over another, it is not inherently good or bad. The key is to accept all consequences of the decision and not deceive one’s self about by continually putting duties off by lying about doing that thing later.

The last guideline to help OSU students authentically “Be Orange” is to live in the present moment and live it in relation to death. In order to truly live in the present moment, one must accept the duality of their being: nature and extra-nature. We must accept our own “throwness” into the world as well as the facticity of our past actions as things that are a part of who we are. We have to accept our essence just like how Sisyphus must accept his boulder; however, we must also accept our transcendence beyond it (Lecture, 4/9/15). We have the freedom to become whatever we choose. However, to be authentic with this freedom one must live in relationship to one’s own death. This means to embrace one’s own being-toward-death and accept responsibility for their lives.

To conclude, striving to authentically “Be Orange” comes with its own challenges. It requires us to take courage and allow ourselves to be vulnerable by acting upon our own values. We must accept who we are and what we want to be despite outside pressures to follow what’s trendy.