"He says authenticity is when what you think matches what you say and what you do. Unspoken is that this should also match what you are." A very well written article by Mark S. Smith
Tuesday May 20, 2008, 5:00 am
Thank you for your thoughts Mark!
It is very true, sometimes we "get it" depending on who is delivering the message. That is Society. ~
Thanks, Tere--very kind of you to post this. As usual, JohnMichael did a great job publishing my essay to his website and found a perfect graphic to accompany it.
Tuesday May 20, 2008, 10:10 am
Mark you have done it agian...LOL You hit the nail on the head with this one...Yes being Ex-Military I have seen, been involved with this crap...LOL
Thank you Tere. Mark is a gifted writer and has too long been content to post the writings of others while neglecting to share the wisdom of his life experiences and brilliant mind. Now that he has finally come out of his shell, I hope we will be hearing much more from him.
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Tuesday May 20, 2008, 10:27 am
Mark, with every work you publish I am taken to a much better world as I ponder your wisdom and love for truth. I define a spiritual leader by the words that come from his heart and mind. I sincerely thank you for for all your time spent in labor of love for humanity
Stephanie, your comment cracked me up. Here I am attacking the sacred cow of "authenticity," and I'm complimented for the authenticity of my critique. ROFL
But it is true that there are authentic racists and authentic sexists, so authenticity alone isn't going to get us very far.
In fact there are situations when authenticity can be a subtle way of enforcing racial and gender stereotypes, something which would otherwise violate Equal Opportunity and anti-discrimination laws. While an employer can't demand that a worker dress or act more like the way that people of their category are stereotypically assumed to dress and act, they can accomplish the same thing by praising or criticizing a person's "authenticity."
Actors make a living by being inauthentic, and if they are very good at pretending to be people that they're not, society rewards them for it handsomely.
The more we are able to put ourselves in another's moccasins, the better we can empathize with them. If we could seriously identify with everyone, there would be no wars. It is only to the extent that we know that we are not just ourselves, but are a part of everyone else, that we become responsible beings and can model our goals.
The risk of renouncing privilege is the risk of working for social justice, but there really is no other way to accomplish it. That's the job that we have to do.
Sarah and AB, your kindness is overwhelming. I've never thought of myself as spiritual, but I must be doing something right to have such admirable friends. Thank you.
Thanks for referring to the accumulation of lessons I've learned the hard way, by making the same mistakes over and over again until I got too old to want to keep doing it, as "wisdom," Ed. They say that if we live long enough, we might start to figure things out. The trick is to be lucky enough to live that long.
Mirror, kidding aside, if what you do is in response to discrimination, to protect others from harm by taking that harm upon yourself, it is meritorious. But if it is done in mockery, it is nothing more than the mean-spiritedness of the selfish and self-centered. Discrimination based on accidents of birth or of circumstances denies others the humanity we might wish to claim for ourselves.
An example might be those working for the Air Force in its mission to dominate cyberspace with its pro-war, Christian fundamentalist crusading message of intolerance. Our military is greatly overextended and exists today only thanks to the largesse of the Chinese and Japanese who loan our government money to keep it going. Should they decide to call in their debts, a lot of Air Force propagandists may find themselves on the same welfare rolls with those they had previously disdained. S**t happens, ya know?
Tuesday May 20, 2008, 12:38 pm
I'm with you Mark, i think whenever racism rears its ugly head you Have to smack it in the mouth so to speak. Racism is just another form of division in all countries, its on its way out, I am happy to say that you really don't need to play along with it in this country like you used to. After all , most of us want the same things in the long run. Thx Mark and Tere.
Thanks, Serge. I only wish you were right. Rather than being on its way out, I see racism becoming stronger than ever under the guise of anti-terrorism. Just look at all the U.S. descendents of immigrants who are opposed to immigration, particularly to undocumented workers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, even though there has never been a case of a terrorist coming into the U.S.from Mexico or being identified as Mexican. Racists keep propagating the lies about immigrants getting welfare, even though nobody can qualify for welfare without proving their legal right to be in this country, and the lies about immigrants taking jobs, when many farms and factories have been forced to close after their undocumented workers were deported and no Americans volunteered to replace them and do such backbreaking labor for such low wages. Immigrants have a much lower crime rate than U.S. citizens, as most are much too busy working or seeking work to commit crimes and none want to call attention to themselves. Yet the lies are still spread by racists, often using their own websites filled with such lies as "sources."
Certainly there has been no reduction in the discrimination against and harassment of women in the workplace and in public venues. Maybe people no longer have to play along, but many still do, sometimes out of ignorance, often out of sheer gullibility, and frequently because they want an easy scapegoat to blame for the government policies that have outsourced their jobs and wrecked our economy. No immigrant ever outsourced 10,000 or 20,000 jobs in a single day the way that many rich white male CEOs of large corporations have. And it is the rich and powerful, of course, who sponsor the propaganda that attempts to shift the blame to the most vulnerable.
Definitely such hatemongering deserves nothing more than a smack in the mouth -- or better still, having its mouth washed out with soap for lying.
Tuesday May 20, 2008, 1:54 pm
Noted. The first time I ever read one of your posts, Mark, I knew you were analytically and communicatively gifted. This story from J-M is further conformation of your unique mind. I am an admirer and look forward to hearing more from you. John-Michael, another bright mind, has done us a great service with this story. Thanks to both of you for the intellectual stimulation. Great job!
Tuesday May 20, 2008, 1:57 pm
Oh, Terri, I am so dazzled that I neglected to complete my post (proof of the state of my mind, lol). Thank you so very much for bringing this to us; you have discerning taste.
Yes, Kudos to JohnMichael also. His website is actually pretty amazing.
I like to go there and browse a bit. I always find something new and informative. It looks to me like a perfect place for Mark's writings.
(Again, a sign of Mark's intelligence in his choice of JohnMichael to publish.)
Marian, JohnMichael is indeed an amazing webmaster. But my decision to let him publish my work almost didn't happen. In his wide-ranging search for truth, he had referenced something that I interpreted as being anti-immigrant. Me being me, I immediately informed him that I was an undocumented worker and that I no longer felt comfortable being published on his site. His response was to IM me and ask, "Whoa! Can we at least discuss this?" So I said sure and we discussed it for a few hours. Suffice it to say that we had a few tense moments before we worked things out to our mutual satisfaction, but I'm very proud of both of us for having done so.
Gorilly Girl has it right. We're supposed to treat others with the same respect that we'd want because we ARE them and they are us. Having never had the courage to tell anyone that I was a gorilly, I have nothing but admiration for Stephanie (and lots of bananas). ;)
Thanks, Joycey. And I want to commend you for actually being a news analyst rather than just somebody who notes a lot of stories. There's a big difference between just noting whatever comes along and actually reading, rating, and evaluating stories the way your comments make clear that you do.
Tuesday May 20, 2008, 5:18 pm
INSPIRATION ~~~ MOTIVATION ~~~~ DEDICATION ~~~~~INTELLIGENCE.
All of the above are evident in this moving essay. Thank you, Mark.
And many thanks to those who have noted this story but not commented, including those on my friends list, those with whom I am not linked but feel connected because I have become familiar with their avatars, and those I don't know yet but hope to see more of in the future. For all its (hopefully temporary) flaws, Care2 still has an amazing number of sincerely caring people, so thank you also to Care2 for being here for us and for constantly striving for improvement.
