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The Paradox of Labels: Do Identity Categories Unite or Divide?
Do the Words We Use to Define Ourselves Bring Us Closer or Push Us Apart?
Part 1 — Pushing Boundaries
As humans, we use the gift of language to define and categorize, giving structure to our perceptions of the world.
We use words to describe words. This is something of a paradox as evidenced by how the meaning of words changes over time or become unfashionable, and we even borrow words from other languages to capture the Zeitgeist of meaning embedded in time and culture.
Over 2,500 years ago, even the Tao Te Ching suggested that words and labels are only representations. In verse one, the first stanza is often translated as,
The Way (or Tao) that can be followed (named, put into words) is not the eternal Way (Tao). The name that can be named is not the eternal (constant) name.
In other words, that which can be labeled and identified is limited by its definition and is only an idea. For example, just as we can categorize objects like bricks by their size, material, and colour, we also categorize and label people by their identities. However, the…
