As human beings we are always already committed. The question is not whether we are committed, but what we are committed to. In the ordinary, average, everyday, “mass,” self that the German philosopher Martin Heidegger characterized as “inauthentic,” we find embedded certain commitments that are easily recognizable when they are distinguished. I take the following from ruminations by Fernando Flores whom I first heard speak of this some 20 years ago.
Commitments of the inauthentic self
1) To look good
2) To no action
3) To assessment and assessment about assessment(s)
4) To offending and being offended as a permanent possibility
5) To already knowing the answer and to questioning for answers and not open to questioning as inquiry
6) To shopping for novelty
The issue is not whether these commitments are right or wrong or good or bad. Rather the more useful concern is what kind of life, of experience of living they give rise to and continue for ourself and others.
{ 0 comments… add one now }