Possessing wild things destroys their authenticity even when the owner genuinely sought it.

Evidence

I suspect that the true identities of mosses are invisible to him and yet he wanted authenticity more than anything. He was willing to pay huge sums to have authentic moss communities at his doorstep where his guests might praise his vision. But in possessing them, their authenticity is lost. Mosses have not chosen to be his companion, they have been bound. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 558

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the ch35 claim about authenticity-through-use versus display, and the fake moss sculpture, tying the chapter arc together. — connects to: Objects become authentic only through use, not through display — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 511; Conserving wildness by exposing it to people destroys what it protects. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 352; The self’s seeming uniqueness is a mass-produced commodity falsely posed as natural — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 117

Broader Connections

• The self’s seeming uniqueness is a mass-produced commodity falsely posed as natural #expands (0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 117