But sincerity's legitimacy has been under unceasing attack, its claims and values eviscerated by the rise of authenticity. Trilling defines authenticity through an historical overview of the suspicion with which artists and intellectuals have increasingly viewed culture and society. As advanced in degrees by Diderot and Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Sartre and R.D. Laing, this argument holds that society represses our true nature and forces us to validate the status quo. Sincerity implies a living up to, authenticity a getting down into. Sincerity demands a concern for others, authenticity is achieved by a regard only for ourselves.
Sincerity is culture, authenticity is counter-culture.
Serving or revering anything except ourselves is a denial of our own nature. Consider the ironic, anti-authoritarian bent of modern America, the intense deification of personal feelings and personal gain, and you can see the influence of authenticity. In a crude way, it can also be inferred from Gore and Bush's legal maneuverings, which place personal interest above the public good. Instead, what Trilling demonstrates is the cultural ascendency of this idea, which has come at the expense of more traditional notions that many of us still hold dear. His book holds up a mirror to modern America.