Fundamental paradox: Authentic vs. Unauthentic

Evoking Authenticity: through polyhedral global configuration of local paradoxes (Part #20)

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This paper has been structured to stress the authentic over the unauthentic. The play between the two is however a typical paradox in the lives of most people. As with other polarities, the challenge is to find new ways of relating to such paradoxes in order to prevent the human spirit from being "quenched", "grounded", "smothered", or "burnt-out" in the processes of daily life.

The challenge of such an opposition may be related to the Buddhist recognition of the fundamental non-differentiation of Samsara and Nirvana [more; more] which, necessarily, is itself contested [more]. But again, in the spirit of Jung's archetypal syzygy, the challenge may be best expressed as that of comprehending the nature of the "marriage" between them -- perhaps best explored as the mythical marriage between Beauty and the Beast (see Poetry-making and Policy-making: arranging a marriage between Beauty and the Beast, 1993). Authenticity may be the progeny engendered by such a marriage. Perhaps it is the pattern of aesthetic associations that provides a key template in support of Gregory Bateson's much-cited insight into the need to protect the meta-pattern -- "the pattern that connects".