Here is a transcript of a recent dialogue on an Internet marketing forum. It has to do with new age concepts of being ourselves and what is acceptable for just being ourselves. Can we ever really be our true selves? Do we have a self separate from the society we live in and the other people we come into contact with? Is the self an illusion, as the Eastern mystics have held all along?

Dude #1 wrote: Instead of being “first rate” or “second rate” it is more important that you acknowledge that you are YOU. YOU do NOT have to live up to anyone else’s expectations except your own. It IS ok to be creative, to think outside the square, to be boring, to be a geek, to be rich, to be crazy, to be a genius, to be a garbo. You can’t compare yourself to anybody else because we are all unique. So who cares about ratings???

Me:

I disagree. This is the relativist fallacy, which equates everything as being equal to everything else. It is ok to have certain standards, adhere to certain principles, and to judge others under certain circumstances.

It is not ok to be [...]