Chad's Miniblog

The Ethics of Authenticity

I have been thinking a lot lately about a couple of things: My personal system of ethics, and the importance of authenticity. As Oscar pointed out on The Office the other week, ethics is not about simple things like “don’t steal” or “don’t lie”; instead, ethics is about the beliefs we have that help us make decisions when there isn’t necessarily a clear right or wrong answer. Over the course of my life, I have, through experience and thought, developed a set of ethical principles that guide my decision-making processes in those areas that are outside of the simple “thou shalt not” rules.

One area of my personal ethical system that I have been subjecting to a great deal of intellectual scrutiny lately is the idea of authenticity—a term that can mean different things to different people. I am not talking about the superficial concept of authenticity that may be violated when you fail to display a pleasant smile and feign interest during casual conversation, as politeness would dictate; I am talking about a deep authenticity of sincerely representing who and what you truly are in your deepest self. I presented a small sliver of my thoughts on this topic in my recent post about managing my online identity in an authentic manner. In that post, I was concerned specifically about being authentic in my online persona in spite of what might happen when a potential employer or client googled my name looking for more information about me.

The consequences of maintaining an authentic life, and specifically an authentic online persona, have started to hit closer to home. Recently, a lot of friends and family have started to join Facebook. These are friends and family members who don’t really know much about my life, since they haven’t had any meaningful interaction with me for 10 years. They don’t know much about my thoughts, beliefs, and ideas the way people who I talk to every day would. There are things that I might say about society, politics, or religion that they will find disconcerting, or even offensive. It isn’t because I choose to say or do things in such a way that is intentionally offensive or sensational; rather, my life experience has shaped me into a very different person than I was 10 years ago. I moved across the country; I went bankrupt; I came out; I was hospitalized for depression; these are things that have had a profound effect on the way that I approach the world around me. These experiences have given me a clearer view of my universe, have made me a more compassionate person, and have shown me different ways to see myself and others. Some of these changes will surprise the people who remember me as the little boy who played the violin.

So with that out of the way, let’s get back to how the ethics of authenticity apply to Facebook. My ethical standards require that I be authentic about my thoughts, ideas, and actions. I can’t censor pictures of me enjoying a Guinness at a pub because I am worried about what my Uncle will think. I can’t hide my complete disgust with Sean Hannity because I am concerned about what a high school classmate will think about it. When I addressed this issue as it concerned potential clients, my response was “If they have a problem with what I do or say, then I am glad they are not going to bother interviewing me.” I realize that in order to be ethically consistent, I need to apply at least the same standard to people who should care about me much more than a potential client. If a family member or old friend judges or ostracises me because of my thoughts, ideas, or actions, then they have indeed done me a favor by excluding me from their circle.

In a recent class, I was asked to come up with a mission statement that summarizes who I am and what I do. I worked through a few drafts, but every draft ended up at the same place: the pursuit of the truth. The highest ideal, the most beautiful idea on earth is truth. My final mission statement is: Pursuing truth and community through technology. This reflects what I believe deep in my heart: Truth—an authentic representation of that which is—is the highest human ideal, and it is what I aspire to.