{"id":3272,"date":"2010-11-25T22:16:59","date_gmt":"2010-11-26T03:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=3272"},"modified":"2018-08-05T20:43:25","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T00:43:25","slug":"thursday-november-25-2010-%e2%80%95-identifying-%e2%80%9cidentity%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=3272","title":{"rendered":"Identifying \u201cIdentity\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read\u00aders may notice that I often get a bit worked up about how par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar words are used. It\u2019s not just the writer in me, annoyed by peo\u00adple say\u00ading \u201cI could care less\u201d instead of \u201cI could\u00adn\u2019t care less,\u201d or oth\u00ader degra\u00adda\u00adtions of the lan\u00adguage. Oh, I have that<\/em> ten\u00adden\u00adcy all right. Strunk and White\u2019s Ele\u00adments of Style<\/em> had a strong influ\u00adence on me. But a stronger influ\u00adence was George Orwell\u2019s bril\u00adliant essay Pol\u00adi\u00adtics and the Eng\u00adlish Lan\u00adguage<\/em>, which I read when a teenag\u00ader. Orwell was inter\u00adest\u00aded in how polit\u00adi\u00adcal ide\u00adolo\u00adgies tend to debase lan\u00adguage. But I came, over the years, to be more con\u00adcerned with the way lan\u00adguage is used to debase polit\u00adi\u00adcal and philo\u00adsoph\u00adi\u00adcal thought, and to serve the inter\u00adests of the pow\u00ader\u00adful. I tend to get most on my high horse when I feel that some stu\u00adpid or wicked notion is being smug\u00adgled into our sub\u00adcon\u00adscious by a turn of phrase or an implied definition. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is exact\u00adly the case with the cur\u00adrent\u00adly accept\u00aded use of the word iden\u00adti\u00adty<\/em>. You see this word used all the time, and phras\u00ades like \u201ciden\u00adti\u00adty pol\u00adi\u00adtics\u201d are assumed to have an eas\u00adi\u00adly rec\u00adog\u00adniz\u00adable mean\u00ading. I\u2019ve just been read\u00ading a spate of archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal papers which rou\u00adtine\u00adly refer to \u201ciden\u00adti\u00adty\u201d inter\u00adchange\u00adably with eth\u00adnic\u00adi\u00adty. These papers, from a vari\u00adety of aca\u00add\u00ade\u00admics, con\u00adstant\u00adly repeat phras\u00ades like \u201cnego\u00adti\u00adat\u00ading their iden\u00adti\u00adty\u201d \u2014 inane jar\u00adgon which the field has bor\u00adrowed from soci\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy, and which is now firm\u00adly entrenched. Archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy is impov\u00ader\u00adished by this kind of rub\u00adbish, and drifts away from sci\u00aden\u00adtif\u00adic rigour. <\/span><\/p>\n

When some\u00adone casu\u00adal\u00adly refers to reli\u00adgious affil\u00adi\u00ada\u00adtion, or to eth\u00adnic\u00adi\u00adty, or nation\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty, or gen\u00adder, as being their \u201ciden\u00adti\u00adty,\u201d there is an implic\u00adit assump\u00adtion that mem\u00adber\u00adship in large, for\u00admal\u00adly defined or orga\u00adnized groups of peo\u00adple is the essen\u00adtial char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adis\u00adtic of an \u201ciden\u00adti\u00adty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, I find this a pro\u00adfound\u00adly wrong, and extreme\u00adly offen\u00adsive assump\u00adtion. Your iden\u00adti\u00adty, <\/em>as far as I\u2019m con\u00adcerned, and as I\u2019ve believed through\u00adout my life, is that which makes you unique\u00adly your\u00adself<\/em>. My \u201ciden\u00adti\u00adty\u201d is com\u00adposed of those things which refer to me and only me<\/em>, expe\u00adri\u00adences that occured to me alone, pas\u00adsions and ambi\u00adtions that are mine, pri\u00advate sym\u00adbols that only I under\u00adstand, inner expe\u00adri\u00adences that belong only to me. These unique, indi\u00advid\u00adual<\/em> char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adis\u00adtics form, all togeth\u00ader, my Iden\u00adti\u00adty. No char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adis\u00adtic that I share with some arbi\u00adtrary group of oth\u00ader human beings, or that is demand\u00aded of me by some col\u00adlec\u00adtive mush, or imposed on me by some pro\u00adclaimed Author\u00adi\u00adty, can con\u00adsti\u00adtute my iden\u00adti\u00adty. Cer\u00adtain\u00adly no group that I am mere\u00adly asso\u00adci\u00adat\u00aded with by acci\u00addent of birth can ever be my iden\u00adti\u00adty. I find the idea that any\u00adone would con\u00adsid\u00ader their iden\u00adti\u00adty to be, say, Nor\u00adwe\u00adgianess, or their skin colour, a pro\u00adfound\u00adly dis\u00adgust\u00ading notion. It is to aban\u00addon indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty entire\u00adly, to crush and erase iden\u00adti\u00adty, not to describe it.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly creepy kind of creep\u00ading col\u00adlec\u00adtivism. The mean\u00ading of the word iden\u00adti\u00adty<\/em> has been dis\u00adtort\u00aded, per\u00advert\u00aded, invert\u00aded. I don\u2019t believe such things are ran\u00addom acci\u00addents. There are always pow\u00ader\u00adful forces that seek to oblit\u00ader\u00adate respect for, and recog\u00adni\u00adtion of, the indi\u00advid\u00adual human being. If you can pur\u00adsuade peo\u00adple that their \u201ciden\u00adti\u00adty\u201d is noth\u00ading more than their mem\u00adber\u00adship in a col\u00adlec\u00adtive blob, that there is noth\u00ading specif\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly notable or sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant about them\u00adselves, then half the work of enslave\u00adment has been accom\u00adplished. It is eas\u00adi\u00ader to con\u00adtrol and exploit peo\u00adple who are not capa\u00adble of think\u00ading of them\u00adselves as any\u00adthing but a mem\u00adber of a group, a class, or a tribe, than it is to con\u00adtrol peo\u00adple who have a strong image of them\u00adselves as unique and indi\u00advid\u00adual. Tyrants have known this since the begin\u00adning of time, and every cult, army, ide\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy, and state seeks to erase indi\u00advid\u00adual con\u00adscious\u00adness and sub\u00adsti\u00adtute a col\u00adlec\u00adtive exis\u00adtence in which you, or I, as indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals, don\u2019t matter. <\/span><\/p>\n

That is why we should be very care\u00adful about how we use words said to describe or define our\u00adselves, and reject any usage that serves these despi\u00adca\u00adble ends.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/a><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read\u00aders may notice that I often get a bit worked up about how par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar words are used. It\u2019s not just the writer in me, annoyed by peo\u00adple say\u00ading \u201cI could care less\u201d instead of \u201cI could\u00adn\u2019t care less,\u201d or oth\u00ader degradations \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-aq-blog-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3272"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7747,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions\/7747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}