Autheticity

Rather than passively waiting to eat what is shoveled to them by the old guard, today people create their own content. Spreading the word regarding its quality by themselves, employing no marketing, no advertising. And what creates a YouTube sensation is authenticity. Every commercial online video endeavor has flopped. Turns out we don't want Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz to create bite-sized TV shows for our online consumption, but people just like us to display raw creativity, to tickle our fancy through their humanity.

Bob Lefsetz - Commercialization/Authenticity

I have said this before but I love Bob Lefsetz commentary on the music business and his astute observations on the paradigm shift we are part of... The letter from which the above quote comes from is all about authenticity and how easily it is lost, if it was ever held, through a quick buck... a cheap sell out to some commercial interest.

What got me thinking when I read this letter yesterday... was authenticity through displays of our own humanity.

The one thing the "top down" emperors want more than anything is authenticity... and its the one thing they don't have.

I remember back to Nirvana and the whole "Seattle scene"... when it went mainstream and Calvin Klein and others repackaged the thriftstore look and sought to sell it back to folk for a lot more than it would have originally cost. It wasn't authentic. It didn't come from the scene. It wasn't from. They did their own thing... they weren't dictated to by magazines or experts... it was their own thing.

When I consider expressions of faith... what I see as being the most meaningful is authentic voices. People within cultures / subcultures / genres / communities / locations / groups etc etc who can connect with their peers and fellow participants.

Its about coming from the scene... its about doing your own thing... Its about rejecting the one-size-fits-all solutions provided by self-appointed cultural experts! Its the D*I*Y aesthetic. Its about people just like us doing it for people just like us... the laos reaching the laos... without any quantitative targets or commercial gain.

We need to empower and be empowered! Each one can reach one... in our own unique way... we can and do connect/reach people that no one else does. One size does not and will not fit all. The old days are gone... we need to get over this attract and extract mentality... and embraced our uniqueness... our specialness... as a gift.

If we only display our humanity... our broken-but-fixed-ness... in whatever unique and creative manner we can... in the situation we are place in... then only good can come of it.

We need to stop being scared of who we are... and start living as people of God... as bright lights in these dark days. Being truly IN the cultures / subcultures / genres / communities / locations / groups etc etc we are in... but all the while dancing to a different drummer... dancing to a different beat... dancing to the redemption song called freedom.

This is being authentic. This is being who we are called to be.