Do you priorities your identities?

[IsItJustMe]

gay/straight/bi
married/single/in a relationship/not in a relationship/other
Male/female
Race
ethnicity
religion/non religion
country/state/county/city
have children/don’t have children
right handed/left handed/both handed
blue eyes/brown eye/green eyes/gray eyes/other eyes
Blond hair/brown hair/gray hair/no hair
vegetarian/meat eater/eat dairy products/don’t eat dairy products
athletic/non athletic
educated/non educated
Smart/not so much
lawyer/doctor/factory worker/nurse/etc…
----------the list is endless…………

It always fascinated me on what identities people decided to feel the strongest toward. It seems that we are born with a gaping whole in us, and we rush through life filling this whole with these identities. What identities you use to describe yourself may not be important to me at all, and visa versa.

I guess our attachment to these identities varies with what is going on at the time. For instance, when 9/11 occurred, I had a strong American identity.

I do have one identity, which I do try to keep foremost in my hierarchy however, first and foremost, always on top, and that is this:

I AM A HUMAN BEING

Yeah, you are probably right. I can hear it now. It probably is just me.

I guess the point of my post, in a round about way, is this. Sometimes we forget. at a deeper level, that we really do love one another. I am as guilty as anyone on that score.

[NJmaverick]

1. This may be an obsolete concept, but I think identity politics are pure poison

I want to be judged by my words and actions and not be what ever arbitrary grouping someone may thrust me into. I feel that others should be treated the same way. Judged by what they do and not who they are.

[notesdev]

2. Me too

enough volunteering to be divided and conquered... let's be Americans first and foremost, we're all in this boat together whether we like it or not.

[NOW tense]

6. Why not be humans first.

If we Americans first we still will find our new enemies. If we were all humans first we would realize that we are all on this ride together. Maybe then we would make this ride more tolerable.

[Bucky]

9. Well no one's saying they're anti-human

But Americans have a particular set of cultural assertions that unite us as a people and as political actors. Being human is a commonality, but is too general a label to get people to rally around it. Being human can't give you identity because it's an category without any identification or specification. That is, we can say, "Yes, we're human" but you can't say, "Human... as opposed to what?"

[NOW tense]

14. I think at times we are anti-human

we do kill don't we. We actively go out and kill humans everyday. Polluting ourselves with mercury that is Anti-Human. Excluding people is anti-human. We discriminate other humans all the time. Being human is a rallying point it is the most basic rallying point possible. I am human. I would like not to harm humans. Grizzly Bears are my enemy? No, animals are living here on this planet too. I will eat them though.

[notesdev]

17. Come to terms with what it means to be human

There is a lot of darkness in the human soul. It is a lot easier to mitigate that darkness by acknowledging it and controlling it than by trying to deny its existence.

As Americans, rather than mere humans, there are generally common understandings on how to deal with some of that natural darkness - our tradition of liberty and law. And these traditions do distinguish us greatly from the bulk of humanity. We take these things for granted, but around the world things like slavery and religious war and lack of basic freedoms are commonplace.

Even with our advantages, we're a serious mess right now. By drawing some boundaries to the problem we need to solve - cleaning our own house - we'll put ourselves in a better position both for posterity and other human beings who can benefit from what we can teach.

[NOW tense]

19. Being human is dark.

We kill each other for their identities.

We make war because of the identities of a few, but kill thousands.

Fear is the identity of tyrants. To be free is to be without fear.

The identity of "I am afraid" are ropes that bind all humans from reaching their potential.

[NJmaverick]

16. Americans are united by a desire for freedom and opportunity

not by any particular set of cultural assertions.

[Bucky]

20. Cultural assertions: the flag, fireworks, freedom of speech, Thanksgiving...

Halloween candy & costumes, Lincoln fetishism, watching sports on Sunday, big fast cars, barbecues, rock music, blue jeans, watching American Idol, donkeys and elephants, fastfood, low-tax fetishism (that one runs back to the colonial period)... oh hell, there are dozens of cultural assertions that Americans rally around. For that matter, even some of our uglier characteristics like the periodic witch hunts for Reds, terrorists, or immigrants are artifacts of our culture that our people get wired up about.

[Richd506]

3. Amen to that

At the heart of it really is the idea that it's wrong for us to suffer the consequences for something that is beyond our control. We should only be judged by thing things we can control which are our actions.

[NOW tense]

4. I have thought on this.

I have listened to "teachers" talk about this.

"Truth is a pathless land. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, nor through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation, and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection. Man has built in himself images as a sense of security—religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these dominates man's thinking, relationships and his daily life. These are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man in every relationship."
~ J Krishnamurti

Nothing is to be clung to as I, me, or mine.
~Buddha

"Who am I" is easier to answer then "whom are you?", but in the end the answer is the same. Human. We all need food, water, shelter, and love. That is what every person wants. We spend our lives just wanting to be noticed. When we are noticed we attach our identity to it. Identity is only what happens as we deposit labels upon ourselves. It all starts with our name. Our name becomes the vessel of our identity. I am......

My question is who is talking when you talk or write about yourself in the third person?

[undeterred]

5. There is the way we identify ourselves- and the way others identify us.

When you are discriminated against for any one of those things, you tend to focus on it more. Age and sex discrimination have had their effects on me.

[Bucky]

7. Identity politics is blecchy (to paraphrase Lucy Van Pelt). On the other hand

I think identity politics comes out of oppression. No one hates me for my race, so it's not really a rallying spot for me. No one is oppressing me for being a male or a Protestant, so again I feel no need to politically defend either group's equality. No one hates me for my sexual orientation, so I don't have to bunker down there, either. My fellow Democrats occasionally give me shit for being a Texan, but it's not so bad that I use my regional identity as a political statement.

About as close as I come to identity politics is that I have a tendency to say provocative things, and so people will really go after me for that. So my idenitity as a provocateur leads me to be as fierce a voice for freedom of speech and freedom of dissent as any crusading newspaper editor would be. I guess that's a form of identity politics

[Toasterlad]

8. And All My Identities Have the Same Rights!

Oh, wait. No they don't.

[Bucky]

10. Toaster are toast!

Death to the toaster scum!

[Cid_B]

11. Personally...

I like my identities but most especially the ones that I chose for myself and that I worked hard towards.

Educated, Athletic..maybe meat eater :)

[Gwendolyn]

12. Not sure how you could avoid it, and it isn't necessarily always a bad thing, is it?

I prioritize and honor my role in the relationship I share with partner. He is my heart and I cherish him therefore he is on my mind many times during the day.

I prioritize being an empathetic misfit as my own inability to fit in helps me see others who may be isolated or different and reach out to them.

When at the beach, I prioritize awareness of my blonde haired, blue-eyed status, because if I don't slather on the 30SPF I will put myself at risk for cancer later on.

I prioritize brain matter over physical appearance, for obvious reasons, and stick to people who feel the same.

It goes on... is that too simplistic? But just can't see how you can really get around it.

[NOW tense]

15. The only way around it

is to only identify yourself. Identifying others unless positive creates limitations.

[Gwendolyn]

18. That works for moi for the most part.

[Gwendolyn]

13. sorry - dupe