How a Health Crisis Became an Identity Crisis
We live in a world that teaches you that who you are as a person can be accurately inferred by what you do and what you have.
A world that leads you to believe that you have power over the choices you make, a unique identity, and the ability to find enlightenment in a $30 yoga class.
Your identity has been hijacked and it’s time to reclaim it from the fist of capitalism that — whether you’re ready to hear this or not — has it in its suffocating grasp.
In a capitalist system you are led to believe that who you are at your deepest core is two things:
- What you do for a job: who you work for, where you work and what your role is.
- What you have: what car you drive, where you live, where you go on vacation, where you went to school and how much you earn.
It’s terrifying to realize that if we boil these two things down to what they really represent, we have: how you make money and how you spend money.
It’s almost an act of genius that the system that is necessitated on you acquiring and spending has made you believe that your identity is reinforced by its three core functions. Let me break that down.
Capitalism is defined as “an economic system in which investment and ownership of the means of (1) production, (2) distribution, and (3) exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations.” These three core functions of capitalism are embodied as three core elements of your identity in these ways:
- Production of wealth is what you do for a job and therefore how you create value in the economic system.
- Distribution of wealth is the income that you earn from the job that you do.
- Exchange of wealth is the way in which you spend your money and the goods and services you acquire as a result of this expenditure.
The reason this is genius comes down to some fundamental findings from Psychology with regards to incentivization of behavior. Most famously documented by Deci and Ryan in 1985 The Self Determination Theory of behavior change was codified and popularized.
At its core the theory states that to make people behave in a certain way for a sustained period of time the individual must believe that the behaviors are aligned-with and reinforcing-of the individual’s sense of self. In other words, if someone is going to do something on an ongoing basis (e.g. ride a skateboard) that person must believe that that behavior reflects who they are as a person (e.g. rebellious and cool).
Therefore, if you want a population en-mass to produce, distribute and exchange wealth for the entirety of their lives you need them to view these behaviors as demonstrative-of and reinforcing-of their identity.
And we do, we truly believe that who we are is what we do and what we own.
The notion of “what we do = who we are” is demonstrated most palpably when we first meet someone. Whether you have just been introduced at a party or matched after swiping right on an app, it’s more than likely one of the first questions you will be asked is the dreaded: “so…what do you do?”
With regards to the things that we own being markers of our identity, capitalism isn’t stupid. It does just enough to give you the illusion of individuality. Two examples that capture this in all its absurdity are Target’s Opalhouse brand and the sunglasses industry. Let’s start with Opalhouse. Target — the 8th-largest retailer in the United States — recognized that people were frustrated by having the same IKEA bed frame, bath mat and mirror as a million other people around the world and so they set out to create, in their words, a brand with “unique designs and elevated details.” The irony being that these “unique designs” are manufactured en-mass, available in all of their 2,000 stores and most items are less than $30.
The ridiculousness of sunglasses is that one brand, Luxottica, manufactures 80% of sunglasses for 100’s of different brands. You’re literally buying the same sunglasses and deciding whether you’re a RayBan person or a Gucci person as if the different mold used for the plastic dictates who you are as a human being.
With this in mind it’s no surprise to me that we feel lost, struggle with addictions and have turned spirituality into a >$100bn industry in the U.S in a desperate attempt to connect with who we really are.
The yoga industry, valued at $27bn, is a perfect demonstration of our lost identities. The original aim of yoga was “divine union”; to experience one’s true self and ultimately achieve liberation (moksha) from the cycle of birth and death (samsara), or enlightenment. But with prohibitively expensive classes, mirrored-rooms and seemingly essential $120 leggings — it’s no wonder and perhaps fortunate for the maintenance of capitalism — that the original aims of yoga are rarely — if ever — realized in those who practice it.
In another misinterpreted appropriation of culture to help us desperately find ourselves there is the concept of ikigai that comes from Japan. This untranslatable word is intended to encapsulate a concept that is defined in Japan as an individual’s “value or meaning to life” (Mieko Kamiya). As might be expected in a capitalist system the concept was grossly misinterpreted and popularized as a Venn diagram which purported to help people find their ikigai through a job. A JOB! Ikigai is not about making money and it’s telling that this is the misinterpretation and popularization of ikigai in our system.
Capitalism is so potent and omnipresent that even the greatest ancient wisdom, concepts, and practices of finding one’s true self are — likely unintentionally — co-opted, misinterpreted and appropriated to further fuel the capitalist system.
With all this said, I believe that now, for the first time in our lives, we have collectively fractured from the system of capitalism because:
- We have stopped producing wealth: More than 42 million Americans have lost their jobs
- We have stopped distributing wealth: 30% of those in the U.S. lost 10–25% of their income and 13% lost all of their income
- We have stopped exchanging wealth: 30–50% drop in overall spending and of this, there has been a significant increase in paying off debts
Because the capitalist system has taught you that you are what you do and what you buy I believe that this is not only a health crisis but a national identity crisis.
What you believed demonstrated and reinforced who you are has been taken away from you. With this reality, in this moment, you have two options and we are seeing both play out in our streets and on our social media feeds. You can either contend with the fact that those things did not make you who you are and you can connect with who that person is now on a deeper level.
Alternatively, you (yes, you Karen) can get angry and irritable because you believe that your identity has been taken away from you. I personally feel that those who protested to open up the economy and give people their freedom back amidst the “coronavirus hoax” fall into this latter category.
On the other hand, the millions of people we are seeing in the streets in cities around the world protesting for racial equity and joining the Black Lives Matter movement are those who have chosen the former.
Stripped of the distractions of consumption, they have realised that they are not defined by Aesop soap, their job at a tech startup, or their $700 air purifier. Who they are at their core is better defined in deeper values: compassion, kindness, integrity. People who care about — and will fight for — justice and equality for all.
Amidst this health crisis we have had a profound, once in a lifetime opportunity to reckon with an identity crisis and ask ourselves; when everything is stripped back, who are we and do we like what we see?
