When Identity Goes Wrong: How To Thrive In An Increasingly Complicated World
When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind — Jiddu Krishnamurti
If you identify yourself with a certain political party, religious grouping or pressure group, you have set boundaries to not belong to the other group. Your focus in this case is to augment that which is different between your preferred tribe and the other.
The discussion will soon be about us vs them. Identity politics is thus born.
Not everything about identity politics is bad. But we must acknowledge that without our strong tribal affiliations, there would be little or no cause to engage in war, genocide and other forms of violence.
Civilization has been built because of our unique ability as Homo Sapiens to cooperate flexibly and in large numbers. This is made possible because of our ability to tell stories. Our extant cousins, the Chimpanzees are able to cooperate, but they can’t do so in large numbers, as they lack the ability to tell common narratives.
When we have an objective enemy such as a pandemic, our ability to cooperate and prevail over the virus is unparalleled. In the 20th century alone, smallpox, a disfiguring and debilitating illness killed 300 million people. It was by mass cooperation and scientific knowledge that the disease was eradicated.
With a clearly defined opponent, our ability to cooperate is a net gain for all of humanity.
Do You See The Violence?
When our enemy is in the realm of ideas, problems set in. Especially in the area of politics.
We have seen the recent violence in the USA over who won the presidential elections. The people who stormed the US congress are stuck in their reality: The election was stolen from them and they had to defend American Democracy. These people were so stuck in their identity that they were ready to die. There’s footage of protesters staring down the barrel of loaded guns, fighting running battles with police.
Not only were they ready to die, they were calling for the heads of the then Vice president and the Speaker. A policeman was killed in the fracas.
Such violence is not unique to the USA. Almost at the same time, an election was underway in Uganda. The campaigns were marred by violence and police brutality against citizens. The president of Uganda blocked access to the internet to ‘defend’ the sovereignty of his country.
Justice, is another word tossed about by all politicians. But it is not obvious what justice is. Your concept of justice may well be determined by various factors including your history and genetics.
A poor African may find it just for some global government to tax the billionaires and redistribute some of their money to the oppressed. For the African, it is unfair that less than 30 people in the world are richer than the continent of Africa.
The billionaire in California may disagree. He believes he is self made and he can give away some of his money through philanthropy. To do it at the behest of some international organization would be, according to him, unjust.
Equality and freedom are other very important and very abstract ideas we’ve not agreed on the terms of discussion. The 20th century experiment of the Soviet Union is a well known example of how an idea as noble as equality can go terribly wrong. The means of production were in the hands of a disinterested government and the wealth produced from that production would be evenly distributed among the citizens of the Union.
What Stalin didn’t know is that Mother Nature never read the communist manifesto. Mother Nature created a Universe of entropy and trade-offs. In Stalin’s case, there had to be a delicate trade-off between freedom and equality. Stalin wanted equality at all costs and millions of people paid with their lives over the idea of equality.
Aristotle famously said we’re political animals but politics is arguably one of the most difficult jobs one can venture into. You’d think those who take up the job would at least have minds opposed to single issue thinking. But that is not the case.
If you don’t like the sight of blood, you’re unlikely to become an emergency room Physician. Similarly, politics seems to be more attractive to those who disdain nuanced thinking. Even the most sophisticated thinkers seem to become dull when it comes to politics. In politics you’re not allowed to have a fluid view of the world. How else can you explain a US congressman defending the desecration of US democracy as seen by the attacks on the Capitol building?
Strong political views are easily galvanized into an identity. With that identity we completely refuse to listen what the other side is saying.
Identity politics extends to other equally complicated facets of life such as race relations, religion, and ethnic differences. The trick out of the identity trap is to pay attention the the feedback you get from reality.
At one time, in Africa, we were under the yoke of colonialism and we could blame our troubles on Europeans. Over the past 50 years most countries are ruled by Africans, but there’s still some who are wrongly committed to past struggles. Much as they may have a point, the fact is that what happened cannot be changed. There is no way we can go into the past and correct the wrongs of colonialism. An update of the struggle is needed.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re campaigning for Universal Basic Income, social justice or you are a member of a political party, keep in mind that your identity is important until such a point that it’s not.
We derive our values from our identified communities, tribes, ethnic groups or nations. These systems must be respected and supported lest we return to the dark ages.
We assume a given identity so we can have some semblance of order. But if the laws of thermodynamics are anything to go by, reality is chaotic and increasingly difficult to comprehend due to the many pieces we have to grasp to make sense.
The Universe has existed for the past 13.7 billion years and forcing your rigid views on an ever changing Universe will do more harm than good.
It is those who dare to understand the inherent contradictions of life that will have a fighting chance in the 21st century. Many times the world will contradict our strong beliefs and in such situations we have no option but to update our views and adapt to the fluid reality the world is speaking to us.
