Zeta Syanthis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zetasyanthis) wrote2014-03-29 04:40 pm
zetasyanthis) wrote2014-03-29 04:40 pm
On Identity (Part 1)
Identity is a tricky thing. We use words to describe ourselves, to try and define who we are so that other people can understand. It’s not easy though, as both the questions themselves and the answers must be discovered with great care. Asking the wrong question is potentially just as damaging as forcing yourself to fit within the confines of one of your answers.
“What am I?” "Who am I?" "What do I want?"
These questions haunt us. They have for generations, ever since we developed the intelligence to wonder about our place in the universe, our place among the stars. We have created stories and legends, models and explanations, and still we seek. We may know the biological explanation for why we are here, but we sure as heck don't know what it means to us.
The thing is… We’re so used to having to fit in boxes, and the world so used to us being easily labelled and categorized, that those of us who don’t fit end up thinking about this a lot. It seems to be the case that the farther you are from society’s norms, the more you end up having to find your own meaning in things. Religion, or lack thereof, is a fantastic example of this, in that those of us who find ourselves outside the norm that is belief in a higher power find ourselves seeking something we don’t know how to find. When you don’t believe in either destiny or an overall plan for the universe, the notion that you are “meant for X” loses meaning. I don’t know if it’s the case for everyone else in this spot, but that leaves me kind of drifting. And since drifting means thinking way too much, here’s a thought… Stick with it, because it’s not going to go where you expect if you only read part of it.
I’m a big history buff, and keep up with current events on top of that, paying quite a bit of attention to not only what’s going on, but why it’s happening. (The former without the latter isn’t very useful, as you can’t really know what’s going on without context.) And so my eyes have turned to the Middle East, as exemplified by Egypt, as well as Russia. I’m aware there are much more extreme cases, but we’ll stick to those two for now.
In general, these countries, the governments in them, and the people, all seem to share common threads as far as how they think about themselves. In moments of uncertainty (and this isn’t exactly unusual!), their leaders have rallied the people to nationalism, dismissing the value of all those who speak against their specific strategies and goals for maintaining power. And so it goes and has gone for many years… They use policy and media to push aside the personal goals and growth of members of their society in favor of appearing strong upon the world stage at great personal cost to their own people.
Now, I’m not going to go into specifics, as libraries have been written on this particular subject and I’m actually trying to make a different point altogether. It's a thought inspired by one of my favorite writers, J. Michael Straczynski. There’s a particular episode in a show he wrote (Babylon 5) called “Comes the Inquisitor” in which one of the cast members is interrogated, and more-or-less tortured by an outside ‘observer’ sent by an ancient alien race. The goal of this observer was to see that the people who were about to be put into a position of incredible importance were the “right people, at the right place, at the right time.”
The way he goes about this is ingenious, and actually forces the audience to answer much the same questions. Over and over, he asks, “Who are you? What do you want?” and does not accept any answer that defines the individual by *what* they are. It’s a really crazy and intense scene, in which the character tries repeatedly to answer with her name, her titles, even the story of how she came to be where she is. He accepts none of it, and actually inflicts pain on her every time she fails to answer in the way he approves.
Although this is obviously a somewhat crazy premise, the questions are very real, and have a serious impact on the way people think of themselves. If you ask yourself who you really are, and what you really want, can you answer that without falling back on things defined by others? Can you speak about it without referring to your job, or one you’d like to have? Defining yourself in terms of what you are (work, ethnicity, tribe, even nationality) might keep you moving, but never considering who you are, and, mayhaps, who you’d like to be seems to be a very dangerous path.
That’s my thought for the day. I’m curious as to responses… You know where the comment box is. :)
“What am I?” "Who am I?" "What do I want?"
These questions haunt us. They have for generations, ever since we developed the intelligence to wonder about our place in the universe, our place among the stars. We have created stories and legends, models and explanations, and still we seek. We may know the biological explanation for why we are here, but we sure as heck don't know what it means to us.
The thing is… We’re so used to having to fit in boxes, and the world so used to us being easily labelled and categorized, that those of us who don’t fit end up thinking about this a lot. It seems to be the case that the farther you are from society’s norms, the more you end up having to find your own meaning in things. Religion, or lack thereof, is a fantastic example of this, in that those of us who find ourselves outside the norm that is belief in a higher power find ourselves seeking something we don’t know how to find. When you don’t believe in either destiny or an overall plan for the universe, the notion that you are “meant for X” loses meaning. I don’t know if it’s the case for everyone else in this spot, but that leaves me kind of drifting. And since drifting means thinking way too much, here’s a thought… Stick with it, because it’s not going to go where you expect if you only read part of it.
I’m a big history buff, and keep up with current events on top of that, paying quite a bit of attention to not only what’s going on, but why it’s happening. (The former without the latter isn’t very useful, as you can’t really know what’s going on without context.) And so my eyes have turned to the Middle East, as exemplified by Egypt, as well as Russia. I’m aware there are much more extreme cases, but we’ll stick to those two for now.
In general, these countries, the governments in them, and the people, all seem to share common threads as far as how they think about themselves. In moments of uncertainty (and this isn’t exactly unusual!), their leaders have rallied the people to nationalism, dismissing the value of all those who speak against their specific strategies and goals for maintaining power. And so it goes and has gone for many years… They use policy and media to push aside the personal goals and growth of members of their society in favor of appearing strong upon the world stage at great personal cost to their own people.
Now, I’m not going to go into specifics, as libraries have been written on this particular subject and I’m actually trying to make a different point altogether. It's a thought inspired by one of my favorite writers, J. Michael Straczynski. There’s a particular episode in a show he wrote (Babylon 5) called “Comes the Inquisitor” in which one of the cast members is interrogated, and more-or-less tortured by an outside ‘observer’ sent by an ancient alien race. The goal of this observer was to see that the people who were about to be put into a position of incredible importance were the “right people, at the right place, at the right time.”
The way he goes about this is ingenious, and actually forces the audience to answer much the same questions. Over and over, he asks, “Who are you? What do you want?” and does not accept any answer that defines the individual by *what* they are. It’s a really crazy and intense scene, in which the character tries repeatedly to answer with her name, her titles, even the story of how she came to be where she is. He accepts none of it, and actually inflicts pain on her every time she fails to answer in the way he approves.
Although this is obviously a somewhat crazy premise, the questions are very real, and have a serious impact on the way people think of themselves. If you ask yourself who you really are, and what you really want, can you answer that without falling back on things defined by others? Can you speak about it without referring to your job, or one you’d like to have? Defining yourself in terms of what you are (work, ethnicity, tribe, even nationality) might keep you moving, but never considering who you are, and, mayhaps, who you’d like to be seems to be a very dangerous path.
That’s my thought for the day. I’m curious as to responses… You know where the comment box is. :)