The Unmasking Event by Cincinnatus Hibbard

Inauthenticity, Imposter syndrome, social media addiction, social anxiety, disconnect, loneliness, and depression . . . these are the mental health issues of our times. They are endemic, rife, and they all have common cause – masking. Masking is that social habit of concealment by which we represent an inauthentic self (or mask) to others. The impulse to be inauthentic in our relations with the world might be the demands of our personal reputation (for availability, for self-control, for excitement, toughness, or gratitude) or they might be those of expectations set by a relationship, or a role (being a friend, man, or a mother) but the underlying motivation for masking is fear and the repercussions of masking are those mental health issues listed. The common cure for all of those issues is social unmasking. Author Cincinnatus Hibbard explains why unmasking needn't be ourselves before the world needn't fearful or brave. And he proves his conviction by reading his private diary over loudspeaker in the coolest park, in the fakest neighborhood, of the richest city in America, San Francisco. This reading, recorded via transcript here, was the first Unmasking Event. Read it to witness an unmasking. Read it to be inspired in your own unmasking. Read it with someone you (want to) love – unmasking is the only way how.