authenticity vs performance

We live in a "cut-paste" culture enabled by technology.

- Lawrence Lessig

The concept of "academic integrity" presupposes wholeness, oneness, "ownness," an identity between the writer and what she or he has written, but this value is not dominant among today's youth. Moral judgments of plagiarism, as we shall see, depend on even more fundamental views of personhood and the relations among selves.

Those motivated by the ethic of "authenticity" insist that their words are theirs alone and that all utterances derive from their own, their singular, their individual, integral truth. Nothing could make them pronounce what is not intended as an expression of their own thoughts and feelings. These authentic selves would never plagiarize because they believe to their core that all they say should be theirs and theirs alone. Their key concepts are own, genuine, essence, integral, means, undivided.

By contrast, those motivated by the ethic of what I call "performance" accept that their behavior is mutable, depending on circumstances. All that matters is the effect of their actions, including their speech and writing. Thus they are not wedded to the notion of a singular relationship between their inner feelings and thoughts and their outer expression. They will say what is expected, whatever suits the occasion, whether it is their personal truth or not. Performance selves say and write whatever works for their practical purposes; it need not belong to them alone. They don't feel a tight connection between their words and their inner being, so they don't sweat it if others use their words or if they use the words of others. For them the notion of "self" is multiple rather than singular and unified. Their key concepts are efficacy, nimbleness, comfort, circumstance, ends, goals.

Technology plays a role in the generational transformation that has occurred between the emphasis on authenticity and the emphasis on performance, but it is not an entirely causal one. The shift from authenticity to performance—with all the accompanying desires for play and so on—has in turn led to the development of certain technological innovations.

The authentic self celebrates uniqueness, individual contribution, essence, fixity, and authorship. It is inner-directed. Its words are its own, and are always meant and sincerely believed. The performance self celebrates collaboration, incorporation, fluidity, appearance. It is goal-oriented. Its words are derived from many different sources and may be spoken or written in earnest or in jest, with conviction or just to get along.

- Susan Blum

performativity

I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.

- Madonna

Since the 1980s, a new ethos has been arising, associated with a concern for achieving set goals and constant consideration of observers' reactions. The "performance" ethos refers to young people's emphasis on goals and outward behavior, a meaning I draw from ordinary usage, industry and business, and anthropology and other human sciences. In literary, cultural, and queer studies a kindred term, "performativity," points out that social categories are enacted in behavior rather than following from preexisting, abstract realities. "Performance selves" focus on knowing what the expectations are in particular contexts and are adept at meeting those expectations. It is insufficient to learn a single role, or even a sequence of different roles along one's lifespan, because contexts may vary from moment to moment. This ethos is often an anxious one, for the performance self must constantly worry about the judgments of others, must constantly wonder if a given set of actions is the most effective, or is even appreciated, and what the consequences will be of her or his actions.

In terms akin to postmodern understandings of literature and science, the performance self does not regard itself as possessing the sole truth but rather sees itself existing in and with multiple truths, multiple roles, multiple purposes. The performance self is exemplified by an artist such as Madonna, who changes her style and appearance with great frequency. When asked whether they would dye their gray hair when they got older, many students said they hoped they would not but probably would. Whereas an authentic self might regard aging as the natural condition of life and accept the accompanying changes in appearance as inevitable and genuine, a performance self seeks to improve her appearance, no matter what the biological reality. Performance emphasizes change, embracing methods such as plastic surgery. Performance selves, male and female, are often sleek, toned, tucked, decked out in synthetic materials with no concern for practicality. What matters is the result, if only an image.

- Susan Blum

identity

an amazon wish list as identity

a collection of quotes as identity

an iPod playlist as identity

a set of clothes as identity

sampling, remixing....

one view of education

A child is not a vase to be filled, but a fire to be lit.

- Francois Rabelais

an iPod playlist as identity

There is creativity and self-expression--uniqueness—in pastiche, a concept quite different from the traditional academic value of originality in thought and expression. A Facebook "Favorite Quotations" section, consisting entirely of other people's words, supposedly displays the uniqueness and creativity of the compiler. And though an instructor might disagree, so would a composition made up nothing but a string of quotations.

When we asked students about tracing the origins of amusing quotes in conversation and whether the quoter has ownership of the lines, one insightful person responded, "You don't own it, you own the quickness of mind to associate" the lines with the situation. The prevalence of this attitude toward pastiche or collage is evident in the collections of songs that students compile on their iPods. One student claimed that his playlist essentially defined him. Like wearing clothing emblazoned with corporate logos as an expression of personal taste, the selection of songs, none of which the student composed, defined his identity: "When it comes to the iPod, I think your personal little soundtrack is almost representative of who you are and where you come from and what you're doing and where you're gonna go."

- Susan Blum

footnote

Footnotes persuade the reader that the author has done an acceptable amount of work, enough to lie within the tolerances of the field...

plastic surgery, bodybuilding, diamond rings, and gold-diggers

Sexual selection creates a psychological arms race in which the signaling capacity of one sex is pitted against the critical, discriminating powers of the other. That is why we have elevator shoes and push-up bras. That is what the cosmetic, body-building, and vocabulary-building industries are largely about: accentuating, highlighting, or faking desirable signals.

Sexual selection theory sees these urges to improve or enhance fitness signals by any available means as utterly natural strategies: they are straightforward Pleistocene adaptations. In this, sexual selection theory goes dead against many forms of cultural constructionism that have prevailed in intellectual discourse for the last half century. For instance, it has for years been widely argued that women dye their hair and apply wrinkle creams only through cultural pressure, and that wrinkles and gray hair are "natural." A Darwinian view maintains that, on the contrary, a woman's desire to look younger, like a man's desire to appear stronger, taller, or more wealthy, is adaptive and innate. Such strategies will take different forms in different cultures and epochs, but they are prehistoric in their origins. Contrary to gender theorists who have tried to argue that women's use of creams and dyes makes them dupes of the cosmetic industry, the converse is more the case: industries that produce lipsticks, mascara, and hair colors only exist because the values of youthfulness and "looking good" are products of evolution. Approve of them or not, these values persist because they represent our deeper, innate nature.

The essential requirement of Darwinain fitness indicators is that they function reliably and honestly: they must pose authentic tests. If they can be faked, they are useless as indicators. If unhealthy peacocks can grow massive symmetrical tails, the tail loses its value as an indicator.

Human obsessions with what is fake and what is genuine in skill, eloquence, beauty, and intelligence thus merge into another fitness indicator that is encountered high on the female list of mate-selection indicators and rather lower on the male list: wealth, along with its closely associated feature of social status. Women normally cannot help paying attention to how rich a man is—or how potentially rich, if he has not yet set out on a career—as well as his conscientiousness, social standing, and generosity. As a fitness indicator, wealth is open to dishonest signaling, and women are especially keen to distinguish honest wealth signals from faked or exaggerated ones. From the standpoint of sexual selection, whether that really is a Rolex watch or an authentic Princeton diploma is not trivial. Selective pressures in the Pleistocene seem to have combined with cultural expressions from the Holocene to put in place elaborate systems of resource-demonstration rules that are intuitively recognized by females—and ignored by males at their reproductive peril.

How does resource-demonstration work in courtship? Here is where the spontaneous, universal characteristics of an adaptation make themselves apparent. One of the best ways for the boy to prove he has resources is to give girl something is both expensive and useless. Hence flowers: they wilt, and except to look pretty have no use. They can communicate "I love you," but more important is what they signal: "I have the resources to buy thoughtful and beautiful but completely useless things for you, my dearest. And please also enjoy these fine, expensive Belgian chocolates." Consider the alternative: if natural selection governed courtship, the boy would show up at the girl's apartment clutching, instead of flowers and chocolates, a lovely potato, or perhaps a couple of thick steaks, or, being even more inventive, a new ratchet wrench set for her. After all, natural selection favors practicality and efficiency. (The young couple would then go out to a serve-yourself, all-you-can-eat restaurant, since natural selection also favors economy.)

That we smile at this indicates how counterintuitive it is. The real world, operating according to the imperatives of sexual selection, works very differently. If the male is serious, he will take the female to a lavish, overpriced restaurant serving mere smidgens of food. He will order champagne and make sure she notices his large tip. (The all-you-can-eat cafeteria comes later: after they've married and have to feed the children.) With respect to proving access to resources and commitment, nothing beats the gift of a diamond, particularly as an engagement ring. Diamonds, since they are both expensive and useless, are indeed a girl's best friend. They prove one of two conclusions: either he has the resources he claims—money to waste on useless minerals—or, if he does not, he is so committed that he has gone into debt. Any way a woman looks at it, the gift—not just the promise—of a diamond marks a significant step in a courtship situation. (The De Beers slogan, "A diamond is forever," is widely regarded as the most inspired single advertising statement of all time, and Darwinian theory explains why: it connects serious wealth display with the loving commitment women seek in establishing a household.)

- Denis Dutton