The Problem Of The Charioteer

The internet and the exo-self from a Christian perspective.

We might understand the “exo-self” as a lasting online portrayal that exists alongside the real person and can influence how others perceive us. This in turn affects how they interact with us, and those interactions can shape how we develop. The result resembles a feedback loop in which the exo-self and the actual person increasingly influence one another. In this framing, we may be inclined to view the exo-self as a thing to be managed as technological progress increasingly affects our lives.

But when the exo-self is considered in the light of Christianity, we come to view it more like a condition consisting of several symptoms. If these symptoms are identified as distorted self-portrayals, inauthentic relationships and malformed personal development, then the obvious question becomes, what is the root cause?

Some may accuse the internet. Social media rewards performance. Algorithms create echo-chambers, at times reinforcing controversy and sensationalism in place of truth. Communication online often lacks the depth and accountability of face-to-face interactions. While all of this describes the experience of the exploding digital landscape, it does not fully explain why we create these disconnected exo-selves.

People have concealed parts of themselves before the internet. We exaggerate certain aspects and adapt our behaviors according to the expectations of different audiences both on line and off. A man might behave one way at work, another way with old friends, another way with family and yet another way among strangers. Some of this variation is appropriate, different situations call for different actions, but the problem arises when these differences stop being expressions of a unified character and become performances. Instead of acting from a coherent center, many act according to whatever role the situation demands. In this way, we stop being ourselves and become a collection of responses governed by circumstance.

The internet did not create this tendency. It magnifies the opportunity for these fractured patterns of behavior, reinforces them, and preserves them in text, image and video. What were once temporary performances can now become a lasting, public pseudo-identity. The on-line exo-self is less of a new invention and more of an exhibition of fracture.

One commonly proposed remedy is authenticity.

Just be yourself.

This idiom, especially when levied at someone else, seems entirely sensible. If inauthentic performance is the problem, authenticity seems like the obvious solution. But when we turn this advice inward, we might at once recognize its inadequacy.

To say “be yourself” immediately presents another question. “Which self?”

We contain conflicting drives. Impulses struggle in constant conflict. Ambitions, fears, loyalties, and habits all pull in opposite directions. One part of the person seeks comfort while another seeks excellence. Still another pines for social acceptance. One pulls toward pleasure while another is drawn by the satisfaction of fulfilled responsibility. One craves revenge, the other longs for peace.

In which of these directions does the authentic self walk?

Authenticity describes sincerity, but alone it does not offer guidance. The problem of the exo-self is not only that we perform and are then faced with a semi-permanent record of our performances. Rather, it stands as evidence that we lack a unifying purpose, and by this, our actions and values lack a consistent orientation. This fracture renders us unable to discern what counts as our authentic self.

This is the problem of the charioteer.

Imagine a charioteer atop his chariot on the track. The official signals the beginning of the race, and he surges forward.

Now suppose the charioteer loses sight of the finish line. Without regard for the destination, he cannot say one direction is better than another. Motion itself is left as the measure of success.

The horses pull left, he calls it self expression. They pull right, it's freedom. In time, he is pulled off the track altogether, yet even this is celebrated as blazing a new trail.

The charioteer finds himself pulled along over rocky hills, muddy riverbanks and terrain the chariot was never meant to traverse. And this is not a lonely wilderness. Everywhere he goes, he collides with other wayward riders.

Eventually, perhaps overcome by a spark of sanity, he might grab the reins and attempt to exert some control over the chaos. Perhaps he develops skill and discipline and becomes increasingly capable of navigating the difficulties. Yet in this way, he falls into a new state, just as misguided as the last.

The charioteer now mistakes improved motion for progress. The smoother, faster and more efficiently he travels, the more successful he believes himself to be. And he sees his exertion of control over his motion as the chief source of this success. But where he was once controlled by the horses, he is now a slave to the terrain. His life is now organized around managing obstacles. He calls it self-actualization. He celebrates freedom from his base impulses.

But the real problem remains. He does not know where he ought to be going.

The problem is not merely a lack of self-control. More control alone cannot solve this deeper issue because he can move deliberately, quickly and efficiently in the wrong direction. The charioteer might invent for himself any destination, anointing this or that spot in his wilderness, bring all of his faculties under control toward that end, reach it, only to find he remains in the wilderness, facing the same obstacles.

Real progress requires a real destination.

The problem of the charioteer is that he has forgotten the finish line. In doing so, he careens from the track and into the wilderness where he suffers from the chaos and harsh terrain, all the while unable to discern which direction and which actions hold any real value.

In the same way, notions like authenticity fail as a remedy for the exo-self because the real problem was always losing sight of the true and proper aim of life.

Countless suggestions have been proposed. Some elevate pleasure as the highest good, others laud power. Self-expression, social approval, security, knowledge, material success or even virtuous actions all take their turn as would-be objectives, yet none adequately fill the role.

Power cannot justify its own use. Success and flourishing demand justification of value. Self-expression cannot explain which aspect of the self ought to be expressed. Even elevating survival is arbitrary without justification. Virtuous action as the aim of life leads to the questions, "why are these actions virtuous?" And "why does that matter?" The recurring pattern is that people operate as if mobile by nature, yet mere motion, nor motion toward these ends, is capable of truly answering the question.

Christianity offers a solution.

According to the Christian worldview, God created everything, including people, for a specific purpose. The biblical narrative describes the fall as humanity becoming alienated from God and through that alienation, we increasingly fragmented from within. From this perspective, we can say the advent of the internet and the spread of social media did not cause this exo-self. Rather, it provides potent fuel for the fires first lit in Eden.

When the beguiled woman saw the fruit was pleasing to the eye, good for food and desirable for knowledge, she took of it and ate, then shared it with her husband. Upon perceiving God’s approach, they hid, they clothed themselves, and when confronted, they attempted to pass the blame. In their disobedient action and subsequent shame, they aimed to construct new versions of reality and who they were within those fictions, instead of being who they were.

Further in the biblical narrative we find Peter who, having received the full gospel, rightly ate with the Gentile believers, forgoing Jewish practices. But when “certain men of James” arrived, he withdrew and behaved differently. Paul rebuked him because, as he wrote, Peter’s conduct was "not in step with the truth of the gospel.”

In both cases, they did not become a different person or manifest a new, separate “exo-self.” Rather, their words and deeds did not aim to align with reality. Who they were and what they did fractured, and by this the fullness of their embodied self was also fractured.

This problem is evident beyond the pages of Scripture. Human beings repeatedly pursue insufficient ends as their ultimate aim, and remain disordered as a result. The problem is not simply ignorance or a lack of self-control. The problem is that we have become separated from the truth which provides real orientation. We are charioteers separated from the track, wandering in the wilderness.

Christianity calls this condition sin. The exo-self, inauthentic behaviors and fragmentation ultimately stem from this state of sin; this wandering without regard for our true aim.

God, as revealed through Christianity, is the aim that transcends the wilderness.

The Christian perspective resolves all the particular manifestations of sin through reconciliation with God. As charioteers, our finish line is the kingdom of heaven, but this is not simply a destination. The Kingdom is inseparable from the King. Christianity directs us towards the person of Jesus Christ. In Him we see both what God is like and what humanity was created to be.

As we are reconciled to God the Father through Jesus, and transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit, the fractured performances of our lives, evidenced by the online exo-self, begin moving toward coherence. This does not occur instantly. We may have to traverse difficult terrain and obstacles as we are brought back to the track, but noticeable progress happens in its time, like a tree bearing fruit in its season.

Paul calls the evidence of this progress the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, but do not mistake these for desirable traits to incorporate into our performances or techniques of self-improvement to be developed. Understand them instead as gifts of grace reflecting a person being restored as they humbly progress toward their right aim.

Also, each of these fruits have a specific meaning, grounded in the same foundational truth that all reality springs from. These are not generic sentiments.

Love is the desire for what is truly best for another, not mere affection or appeasement.

Joy is not emotional excitement, but stable, sober delight grounded in God’s goodness.

Peace is not blindness to real suffering or pretending all is well. It is confidence in God’s promises despite hardships.

Patience is not passive waiting. It is endurance in pursuit of our true purpose when no reward is visible.

Kindness is not superficial niceness. It is active benevolence toward others, the calming of their seas where possible and the conscious refrain from churning them up further.

Goodness is not based on personal preference. It is adherence to His law, for His glory, toward His kingdom. It is a commitment to what is right and true, not what is convenient.

Faithfulness is not blind affirmation or mental ascent. It is knowledge, belief, and ultimate trust in what is known to be true.

Gentleness is the exertion of our capacities in relation to others without coercion, not weakness.

Self-control is not repression. It is the proper governance of our faculties toward our true and proper aim.

The emergence of these qualities identify a person becoming increasingly integrated rather than increasingly fragmented. They are not masks or performances.

The increased use of the internet threatens to continue to amplify the symptoms of sin and fragmentation. Technological advancements provide unprecedented opportunities for performance and self-construction. But technology remains secondary.

As we turn back toward the true aim of life and are restored through the work of the Holy Spirit, the fruit is magnified by that same technology. In this way, the symptoms of fracture and sin, some of which we might nominally deem the “exo-self,” dissolve and are replaced by the fruit of the Spirit and the Kingdom of God.



Prompt: The Exo-Self
Word Count: 1953