In our post-industrial society there has become a greater importance for personal authenticity, but to understand this struggle for personal authenticity we must look at the current cultural climate we live in. In pre-industrialized societies change occurred over numerous generations but in our post-industrial society we see that change occurs numerous times within our own lifetime. We this rapid change we see a shift from maintaining core traditions, values, beliefs, to a society whereby we must be constantly changing, but this change has become rather superficial, so as fast as we can change our tires we can change our beliefs, values, and traditions. In essence, we have become an ideological and spiritually drifting society and we suffer from a phenomenon that Emile Durkheim called "anomie" or normlessness. It is ever difficult to be authentic when our society lacks grounded ness when it comes to our being, for how can we be true to the self when social change is so rapid. .
From this current cultural climate we see the struggle for personal authenticity and this personal authenticity requires the integration of life and death. .
In our society, we tend to fracture people into labels for the sake convenience; for example, the economically disadvantaged person living on the street becomes labeled as a "bum" or "loser" instead of human being who is suffering from the social condition that they are being subjected to. Our society also creates fractured ness by the labels it utilizes to categorize us, instead of acknowledging us as human beings. These labels help to create the spirit of abstraction and there is nothing more evident of the spirit of abstraction then the technology that encompasses our daily lives. For example, cell phones factures us and from this facture we become labeled to the status of "cell phone user" or "cell phone customer". This particular technology dehumanizes us and reduces the level and amount of authentic relationships with fellow human beings.
