Ruminations on Identity, Identity Politics & Who are you?

Originally circulated on 24 July 2020

Hi fellow Ruminants & Groupies in Lock Down Level 3

Greetings from  day 119 of lock down.

The inspiration for today’s Ruminant Pink Friday’s ™ comes from the resurgence of populism and identity politics in the world. What exactly is identity politics?

Identity politics is a term that describes a political approach wherein people of a particular religion, race, social background, class or other identifying factor form exclusive socio-political alliances, moving away from broad-based, coalitional politics to support and follow political movements that share a particular identifying quality with them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_politics

Contemporary applications of identity politics describe hyper specific groups of peoples of specific race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, economic class, disability status, education, religion, language, profession, political party, veteran status, and geographic location.

Being a science fiction geek I will refer to the core question posed by the Vorlons an ancient and extremely powerful alien race in Babylon 5. https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/Vorlon. The Vorlon question is: Who are you? Do you know who you are and how do you classify yourself? Does being hyper specific help?

So for the purposes of this rumination I will classify myself as:

A South African, grumpy, critical, late middle aged, heterosexual,white, family man grounded in the scientific method

Ideally I would like to take white out of my classification but I know that this is a critical reality in today’s world and it would be conspicuous by its absence. I didn’t choose to be white, South African, late middle aged or a heterosexual man. I don’t feel it necessary to add my sexual orientation, religion, (mental) disability, military orientation, education, language, political party, profession or any other classification. I also do not wish to ascribe to or support organisations that will specifically advance the interests of my classified group.

I am going to reference two articles on identity politics. The first is an interview with Francis Fukuyama on his book, Identity: The demand for dignity and the politics of resentment. https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/09/30/can-liberal-democracies-survive-identity-politics. The modern concept of identity is built around self-esteem—that is, the idea that we have hidden selves that are undervalued by other people, leading to feelings of anger, resentment, and invisibility.

The 2^nd is an article by the historian, Yuval Noah Harari. https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/09/26/we-need-a-post-liberal-order-now. I think this quote is relevant:

In the 21st century we face global problems that even large nations cannot solve by themselves, hence it makes sense to switch at least some of our loyalties to a global identity.

We need to move past narrow identities and identify as global citizens responsible for our planet and its future. Building walls and being isolationist is not going to achieve that. He suggests that you ask leaders or politicians this question:

How do you see the world of 2040? What is your worst-case scenario, and what is your vision for the best-case scenario?

Leaders who don’t understand this question, focus on the past or who can’t take a global and collaborative approach don’t deserve your support.

Please keep the submission ideas flowing.

Regards

Bruce