Identity based on the whim of the individual

Subject: Identity based on the whim of the individual.



Do I identify myself with others and does the thought support our much vaunted multicultural concept of unanimity. Does my white skin, or the language I speak also identify me or is it counter productive to mention these things. Does my personal gene pool have any bearing on who I am or should I aggregate my genes in a wider pool to encompass everyone. Does the identity of birthplace mean anything anymore or has the flux of people all over the world simply dissolved any meaningful sense of identification.

And finally is racial profiling dead  due to the pressure of recognising the strength of living in a multiethnic  society, whether we like the idea or not and has the power of J P Morgan and their concept of globalisation not swept aside national identity for an economic  place on the GDP ladder.

So many questions to which I must add, the age of the person questioning has a bearing since reforming norms wasn't under way when I was a lad and many of the convoluted solutions on diversity, which once was based on nationality or the tribe, is now down to subjective individual preference.

Perhaps we might start to question this hotchpotch of diversity with its fragmentation and the need to continually reimagine an absurdity of choices which individual rights demands. This fragmentation only weakens our understanding of self since whilst I am not one of 'them' I must recognise ‘their’ rights and in some ways, temper my own.

The strength of the Taliban, against the historical might of three empires, the British, the Russian and now the American was based on the insoluble togetherness of the tribe plus the glue of religious commitment. This semi illiterate group of tough resolute fighting men with a shared belief in their community and the land they occupied held their ground and waited for the invader to go home, whence they reemerged from their strongholds to reestablish  themselves in power. Perhaps there is a weakness in a philosophy which proclaims moral  and ethical certitude over the comfort of communal recognition. Perhaps recognition is the most important  sense we have since on it is based the principle of fight or flight. We flee from the lion and stroke the rabbit.

The beard of the Taliban  or an acceptance of gender recognition using old fashioned physiology as the best and most reliable guide seem best placed to define us, not the crazy dismemberment of society into bits and pieces based on the whim of an individual.