Acting authentically in the face of survival

[Hovik]

You bring up a very interesting point, something I hadn't thought of. With that in mind, do you think people would be able to act more authentically if we didn't have to deal with those choices?

I disagree with the way this question is formulated: confronting these sorts of questions is what constitutes our authenticity. We aren't some spiritual being displaced into a material world; we have no 'inner soul' yearning for a pre-set destiny (I'm sure you're familiar with Sartre's "existence precedes essence"). By accepting this void and assuming our freedom/responsibility* in our involvement with the world, we can determine our essence (Beauvoir says: "man makes himself a lack of being so that there might be being."). Existentialism (from its internal perspective, anyway) consists of realizing that we have to face these choices (and we can't just 'cover up' this choice/abyss before us: that's bad faith).

*this is more or less just observing that we have to deal with the consequences of our actions... it's essentially the other side of our freedom, and realizing that our choices have consequences.

Thinking on it, I've come to realize that there is a flaw in the very premise of this question. I (and having discussed it with her, Annik as well) understand that authenticity is the affecting of one's own ideals in spite of pressures, external or otherwise.

I think perhaps a more apt understanding of the question posted in the OP is whether or not one can truly be free when one must live to survive.