Consistency of Character And The Battle For Authenticity
Who is the real you? Have you ever thought that the person you are today is not the person that you would like to be? As someone who at times can be rather introverted, on many occasions I have been discontent with the character that I have established. What if tomorrow you could just be a different person? The truth is that you can be whoever the hell you want to be. If you want to preach your philosophy across the land far and wide. Don't be quiet, share. And if you want to critique every living person in existence. Feel free to do that do. You may lose a few friends, but maybe they weren't good friends in the first place. And maybe if they are good people, then I guess you can choose between your friends and the authentic you. Sorry, I guess.
Oh, Cindy? She's always had shiny skin, that's how we can tell her apart.
The Teleportation Chamber
Let us imagine that teleportation is a real thing ten years from now. What does teleportation have to do with authenticity? Not much, but hear me out. In the teleportation process you are disassembled and then reassembled on the other end. For the bystander on the other side, the person that appears may not be you. Sure they look like you and sound like you, but are they you? However, by divulging your character, they gather enough information that you are yourself. Or a very, very good copy.
Let's say that after going through the teleportation process that you decided to completely change your character. Your friends and other acquaintances might be concerned. I mean you had this set of characteristics and now you have a completely different set. Are you the same person? Sure you look the same, but they may be inclined to think that you are a copy of yourself and travelling via teleportation is very dangerous. What does this illustrate? People are heavily dependent on characters that we establish and I'm not too fond of teleportation.
Societal Warping
But why would we ever adopt an inauthentic character? It would seem unreasonable to turn ourselves into people that we don't want to be. Sure, we want to be consistent in our character, but how do we come out of sync with our authentic selves? Young children seem to be rather authentic. They do want to want and refuse to do what they don't. They are beautifully authentic.
But at some point during a child's development they begin to change themselves into people that other people want them to be. Through the early days of school children are told to follow instructions and to fit in with their fellow classmates. Ironically they are told to be themselves when they have to be other people to make friends and fit in. Sure they develop their character during this period, but they often to begin to warp their character to what society desires. Which is fine when your interests align but can become problematic later.
Society Vs The Individual
Unfortunately, I cannot endorse that all people should abandon their developed characters and adopt an authentic one. For one must conform to some extent to society and its expectations. And at times this will make you unhappy. But the society that you presently exist in and the society you developed your character in are completely different. School and childhood is artificial. You lived in a sheltered environment with strict views and heavy expectations of behavior. You can be a different person and one that aligns more with what you want but you will never have it perfect. Other people are in the way.
I finish with one last point. Maybe there is no authentic self. Maybe we feel certain ways in certain situations and these change over time. But if our desires are flexible, our character should be flexible too. But we like to stay rigid in our characters and stay consistent. But this is because we don't like warping our characters in the way that society did when we were younger. The best advice I can give is to get out of your comfort zone. Sure, you may initially feel bad, but that is because you are being inconsistent. The more you do, the more this new behavior becomes consistent behavior. Now you can stop being unhappy and start being the person you want to be. Sometimes.