Identity … Who are you? Who am I?
Who are you?
Who are you … now … right now?
And why (what leads you to answer in this way)?
And, what do these Questions even mean?
What makes me ‘me’?
With whom, or what, or where do I identify?
How deeply?
When?
Why?
Has this always been the same?
If not,
How has it changed over time?
What has caused this change?
Can I even describe the feeling that the sense of identity I have with a person/situation /place/spirit releases within me?
Endless Questions on a notion so fundamental to each individual’s relationship to their world …
Identity lies deep in the Soul of Culture …
What is ‘Identity’?
Identity is a feeling.
If it is even possible to describe it in the conventional sense, we could say it relates to the sense of belonging someone has with a person/situation /place/spirit.
It is transient of course, like most things in life, meaning that the feeling(s) associated with identity may change and frequently do.
Identity can be nebulous. It is rarely clear cut and the way people proclaim theirs is at times situational and highly selective. We all have multiple identities und this multiplicity may also be multifaceted. For example, think family, role in the family, profession(s), place (where you live, grew up, lived for a significant period of time, nationality (e.g. does the country of your nationality 30 years ago even exist today?) … the list is endless.
The sense of identity will be different in each case.
Yet whatever real our feelings may be on the identities we claim for ourselves, the labels we use to name them are all artificial … and cannot be otherwise.
Attributed Identity
Attributed identity is commonplace and a huge source of conflict.
By definition it includes, therefore excludes.
States attribute an identity to its citizens, or refuse to do so. The decision is based purely on current local political opportunism and bears no relation to the individual affected. It’s hugely disrespectful.
Religious groups dominant in a ‘country’ or region attempt to attribute an identity to people within their sphere of influence. Again, it bears no relation to the individual affected. It’s hugely disrespectful.
Organisations attempt to attribute an identity to those who work for them. If done without an invitation, as is often the case, it bears no relation to the individual affected.
Who defines who I am?