Sincerely, Rubber (Part 3)
"It is not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about the important things." - Robert Hutchins
This is Part 3 in a series titled "Sincerely, Rubber".
Sincerity? I hardly know 'em.
"It is not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about the important things." - Robert Hutchins
"Sincerely, Rubber" is a synopsis of my grand unifying theory for the death of a personified Sincerity. For at least 3 generations, Sincere expression was slowly dying, and the millennials were the generation to shut Sincerity into its coffin, and to bury it. Indeed, for some time, millennials were the last ones to feel Sincerity's original warm glow (perhaps this is part of the reason why members of my generation are particularly such suckers for nostalgia; many of us straddle a world before and after the death of Sincerity).
Sincerity is one of those overloaded terms, so before I go any further, I will first try to describe what I mean.
Sincerity is the open and genuine expression of thoughts, feelings, or ideas – to be straight-forward in one's actions and to act in accordance with one's thoughts, without pretense. In the Aristotelian view, Sincerity is a virtue that means neither over-inflating nor diminishing one's capabilities. Kant would have described Sincerity as a sort of duty to "truth" – moral integrity. Kierkegaard would have described Sincerity as escaping from self-deception and living in accordance with one's true self. Many religious traditions see sincerity as a crucial path to enlightenment, divine connection, or self-purification.
If that last section fails to provide even an ounce of clarity for what I mean by "Sincerity", then I don't blame you. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sincerity is difficult to describe in such a dry, matter-of-fact sort of way. In fact, I find it difficult to solely describe at all. It is, perhaps in the truest sense, a feeling – an intuition. However, Sincerity is unique among our expressions in that you'll never encounter "him" alone. He always seems to be joined by friends, and is also seemingly friends with everyone. And if Sincerity isn't there, the entire shindig feels a bit bland and boring.
Sincerity enhances those in its coterie – brings out the best in them; it integrates them into the whole. Sincerity is a meta-feeling; it is the nature of the expression itself. Similar to how spices in a culinary dish elevate the profiles of the underlying ingredients, so to does Sincerity for our self-expressions. It is the universal spice of expression.
To put it succinctly, Sincerity is to be authentically vulnerable in your expressions, usually towards someone or something. But this is no longer its modern conceptualization.
The modern conceptualization of Sincerity of expression seems something akin to "mawkish" or "maudlin"; excessively sentimental. At the extreme, Sincerity has been reduced to something like "cringe", or "childish" – almost naive, something to be mocked – as if to say "Wow, you really fell for that?" This cynicism towards our most integrating feeling is a grave sign. It is precisely what is rotten about the modern conception of Sincerity, and this is a direct result of widgetization.
It turns out that our socialization widgets do a horrendous job of encapsulating Sincere expression; they are much too low resolution. Case in point: have you ever experienced taking the time to write someone a long text message, the modern equivalent of a letter – something you felt was really important to express and heartfelt, only to have felt the subsequent deflation when the recipient responded with a "👍"? (the tendency to send a long text, as opposed to an in-person meeting, could even still be a symptom of our modern apprehension towards Sincerity.)
We see the downstream effects of the death of Sincerity everywhere.
Gen Z is cited to be the most anxious and most alone generation, ever. A majority of Gen Z claims that they do not possess any close friends that they could depend on for help or in which they could confide. Gen Z is also having less sex and participating in less social gatherings compared to prior generations.
We see the lack of Sincerity in the "Marvelization" of cinema, where viewers are made numb to any Sincere investment in the characters or plot, by a cheeky joke, or a breaking of the fourth wall, every 15 minutes.
We can see the lack of Sincerity in the polarization of our politics. If folks are unable to have a sincere dialogue, it's impossible for anyone to empathize or understand another. It instead becomes much easier, and frankly alluring, to simply chalk up lack of empathy to the evil or subversive intentions of "the other" – "If only those people over there weren't so evil and awful, then I wouldn't have to be so miserable and angry, all of the time."
These observations are what I was referring to at the beginning of these ramblings; the death of Sincerity and widgetization has produced something like the world described in "Fake Plastic Trees". Indeed, we are not better off for it, and we are all wore out from it.
Everything I see, or read, or hear, seems to be a symptom of the death of Sincerity. On the other hand, I have increasingly been seeing, or reading, or hearing more about conscious efforts – perhaps even freudian slips, of Sincerity's resurrection.
This is the end of Part 3 in a series titled "Sincerely, Rubber".