Have you noticed how ‘authenticity’ has become something of a buzzword lately?
Having become unlaced from its close old companion ‘integrity’, its meaning has taken on a new set of connotations. As Douglas Wilson says in his short book Wordsmithy, ‘the word authentic has lost its authenticity and has become a nebulous term of praise’.
A longing for greater personal legitimacy is being played out on social media and in our shops, cafés and advertising culture, all of which either offer a way of expressing our authenticity or promise to deliver more of it. Our consumer age is only too happy to sell us everything we need in order to be ‘authentic’. We can, apparently, purchase our way to true individuality.
