Common Sense Commentary: A career built on acting, modeling ... pretension, so often leads to narcissism, promiscuity and presumed entitlement. Associating with pretenders all the time has molded a strong-hold of political and religious Liberals in Hollywood with little grasp on humility or reality.
Sophistication is refreshing, in an age of scruffiness, if it is a reflection of who the person really is. If it is only as deep as the cosmetics and fine clothing, I suppose that is about equal to being rich and pretending poverty. We live in a strange, contradictory time. Poor people trying their best to look rich and rich people trying to look poor. The spoiled, rich, young pay $50 to $200 for blue jeans stained to look dirty ... or with holes in them manufactured to look worn out by hard labor. Most poor kids can't afford to buy that kind of poverty image, so they make their own ... or drop the waste band of their truly earned dirty jeans down below their crotch... cuffs dragging the ground ... with a pair of sneakers often stolen from a weaker, rich kid or some store. I have seen churches on TV full of poor people who look richer than millionaires. Of course, the clothes you wear, house you live in, car you drive or the out of control way you spend money to appear rich ... do not change who you really are. Your true character is usually the sum total of your life experiences, environment, what you allow yourself to think about and to some extent to your DNA. It would also include home training, conversion to Christ and things of a spiritual nature. All of that said, nobody is exactly what they appear to be except very young children and the retarded. Normally, nobody is totally transparent.
I think pretension is sometimes necessary and appropriate ... to fake it til you make it. If, for instance, you are a fearful leader with just one life or death option you cannot avoid. In which case you trust God, act out courage and go for it... all in, if you have no other choice anyway. You show your trusting followers courage and confidence whether you feel it or not. Leadership hysteria causes a stampede among followers. Such a time of pretending might be in order if, as David, you were captured by a cruel, merciless enemy. and needed a way of escape. In 1 Sam.21:13, when David was captured and taken before a vile king, he pretended to be insane, scratching on the door with spittle dripping from his chin. The king was disgusted and had him thrown out of the city ... which set him free to win battles and later become a king himself. There is a time to pretend. Even God, when Adam hid himself, pretended not to know where Adam and Eve were when He called out ..."Adam where art thou?" God knew where they were but they didn't realize just how far they were now separated from Him. Parents do the same when they play hide and seek with their small children.
Many a Jew pretended to be a Gentile during the Nazi reign of terror and extermination of all the Jews in Europe.
Not to put too fine a point on pretension....
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven...." Ecc.1:3. That does not include sin, of course.
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