Authenticity, a retrospective...
A question
Posted on UKBouldering
Hi UKB types, Andy 'edge lord' Kirkpatrick here. For some reason, I've started getting activity posts from UKB, which have started to pop up at the same time as someone asked me to do a podcast on the subject of authenticity. The two things seem related, and although it might be more fitting to ask the question on UKC, the fact I'd get zapped in seconds for posting anything at all, I thought I'd ask the question here.
My authenticity question is, is authenticity a negative in the 21st century? Is it just an inability to conform, to give in to pressure or intimidation, to go along to get along, to adopt the views of your betters (like Andy Popp ; ), to agree, or just keep your mouth shut? Is it a noble thing and a virtue, or is it stupid, maybe even self-destructive (many creative people are self-destructive for a good reason, as it avoids that "second album" problem)?
I pretty much burnt up all my social capital in 2014 (for various reasons) lost my social tenure after going against my tribe (the majority of UK climbers are middle-class Labour voting professionals who work in the public sector or are public sector adjacent, while I was a Labour voting working class self-employed pleb, which pretty much makes you hard-Right in 2024). Maybe I was one of the first climbers to get cancelled (I had people writing to anyone I had any dealing with telling them I was deplorable, including sponsors, publishers, mag editors, and even the BMC in regards to funding to Jen Randell's film of Psychovertical), but I'm not complaining, it was trip!
Anyway, seeing as it's ten years later, and some of the stuff I talked about ten years ago, untouchable subjects, are now being discussed by your Labour leader and are mainstream, is authenticity worth the cost when, really, you can just conform - which is really an act of humiliation, but most people kind of get off on that - and just change with the times?
Hi Andi:
I made the mistake of scanning UKB and all I can say is "too soon man, too soon."
It was like reading our public broadcaster - the ABC (AlwaysBeCommunist). I feel a teensy bit dirty and squalid now but it's probably just my white fragility. Lucky I am female so I can claim at least a little intersectional oppression.
Cheers. Your last podcast was, as always, brilliant and funny and incisive.
Dear Andi, thank you for your comments on how mainstream thinking and living is becoming a feature of todays Zeitgeist. Every form of life is levelled out. As I am, or better was, an Industrial Designer (Besides being a climber) I notice it in many of the objects we create. Funnily enough especially in automotive design. Cars are looking all the same. No company dares to risk a bold concept in case of failure. The shareholders would not be pleased! Maybe this is a feature of prosperity of western society. We have become now become afraid of loosing the comfort we have gained. (By exploiting the labour of poorer countries).
Anyway I would like to stay more in contact with you Andi, to change ideas especially about climbing. I will gladly make a financial contribution to your writing, but I’m not willing to pay substack. How do I go about it?
To my person: I‘m James G. Skone, a retired Professor of the University of Applied Arts in Vienna Austria. Did a lot of, what I would call - cultural transfer - from what I experienced in the 1960 in England (I‘m 76 now) to Austria or maybe even the Eastern Alps. Amongst other things I did with my wife Krista and friends the first waterfall ice climbs in 1977, 1978 in Austria.
Climbed in Uk, Troll Wall, second ascent Norwegan route, learned to hate big walls, climbed Yosemite, loved Tuolumne, climbed big routes in eastern alps, in Tchech Sandstone, etc.etc.
(all this just to show my credibility 😂).
my blog, website: www.no-to-po.com email: skone@vienna.at
Would love to get a reply from you.
Cheers James