new online magazine!:

Check out the new online magazine!:
http://www.earthreview.eu/

Saturday, October 2, 2010

What's wrong with identity

Last week a Belgian politician came speaking in the guest college of political studies in Gent (Belgium). His main point was the point about "identity". And that it is important to use this identity to base ones policy upon. He talked about how people feel closer to those within their own "region". Like for example people in Flanders feeling more "connected" or "closer" in a way, to people in Flanders, then to the French part of Belgium. And that our identity lies where we are brought up. He also asked the students who feels more like part of Flanders, or part of Belgium. I was waiting for him to say: "or part of the earth." But he didn’t. I found it a very narrow view and he continued the talk by mentioning it’s an illusion and not realistic to claim one is a "world citizen". A lot of his talk he based on "human nature" and how we are designed. I found it strange he did not even question that but accepted it as some kind of God. Like human nature is something we should just follow.

Clearly, this has never worked and has led to many struggles and wars within this world. Separation is everywhere. Does it mean because you feel something that you have to follow that? Hell no.
We are never going to have real change if we keep an attitude like that and just follow the way we are programmed and designed to be.
I have visited many countries in my relatively short life already, and I did not feel less "close" to people from other countries then I feel around people who speak my language or live in my town. Actually I have felt more close to people from different countries but who share similar viewpoints about the world. I am not saying that it is something that I then should allow to control me, no; it’s simply to give an illustration. I can feel very distant from fellow "Belgians" or "Flanders people", because of the fact that I am quite different in my behavior and what I want to do in life and what I stand for. Those around me care about their own lives, blinded from what goes on in this world and what they are really doing with what they act out and what they say. They want to fit into the system as it has been laid out in front of them, and look at you strange when you don’t. They are programmed like anyone else and don’t question it. Doing that, you will remain a slave forever to your programmed mind, and to the collective, and nothing will ever change because you are not directing yourself in total self awareness and self responsibility. Your program is directing you instead.
This is what many people don’t consider, and which I have not considered for a long period of my life.

So it is not because one may feel "closer" to his country or part of the country, that one should then simply follow that feeling and "go with the flow". We have to first of all educate the population about why they feel like that, what is the outflow of this, what thoughts and emotions well up, what do those cause on a global scale etc... Our system is not disconnected from the rest of the world, it is 1 global system whether we like it or not. We are selling products made by sweatshop workers and profited on animal abuse.
If I was born in Africa, then I would be an African, if I was born in China then I would be a Chinese - and programmed accordingly.
Does that mean all the people should just accept and follow that blindly? Those systems have been put into place by other people, who wanted to have power, who followed their ego and their desires. So clearly the systems in place don’t do what’s best for all, they don’t do what is beneficial for all and what creates cooperation. No, instead it functions on separation, competition and profit over life. And people are so heavily programmed within it that they will defend it, thinking they are "strong" and defending something good, but in fact they are defending their own enslavement, their own demise. And that’s how clever it is, this system, to have the slaves defend it. Of course not realizing they are slaves to begin with.

I am of the earth, like anything else is, identity is merely a program within us that we should not blindly follow, and neither would I blindly follow anger when it wells up inside me. You have to understand why it wells up, and see what the outflow is. Same with "identity".
So being a world citizen is not so "crazy" as the politician sais it is (or thinks it is). It’s a given fact. We are all equal, all made from life, the ONLY thing that creates the separation is our believes, our desires, opinions etc... that we use to raise ourselves above (or below) others. Strip those things away, and there is nothing left to fight about. And with equality I mean equal in worth, equal in value. Not equal as in: looking the same and doing the same. We are equal, but different.
And those who promote inequality are in fact abusers of life

3 comments:

  1. This brought up a fascinating point that I read in my sociology textbook the other day within the chapter on 'Identity and Collective Action' which states : 'sharing a group affiliation with another person helps us develop emotional attachm...ents to that person...gives them an emotional connection in which to build their relationship...'
    That this is written in a textbook, encouraging emotional attachment to others as the foundation in which to 'build' relationships is absurd and is obviously only promoting further enslavement - doing nothing but 'building' the wall of separation higher and thicker. It's telling people to become dependent on others to identify who they are and to seek out groups in which to follow and become 'attached' to. It also mentioned further along in the reading that, for example, being Jewish and defining oneself as such creates a 'stable' point as the platform of one's identity.
    Nowhere in the chapter does it mention the detrimental effect this can have through segregating oneself by only viewing the world through the lense of one's ideas about who they think they are in relation to their emotional connection with others, which creates their identity they then believe to be 'who they are' and cling to for fear of who they would be without it - whether they are aware of this fear or not. We have seen countless examples of this 'special grouping' throughout history as well as currently - just look around!
    It's time we stop all the labels, stop creating one identity after the other in order to not have to face who we have become as humanity, and start standing up as beings of this earth and take self-responsibility for what we have created - we are all equally responsible - it's obvious that when we are caught in our emotional attachments we aren't able to see this clearly due to only wanting to exist within our limited ideas of ourselves, but the outflow of this is much abuse.

    Thanks for sharing Ann.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My son is entering puberty and I can see this "need to identify himself with the group in order to establish who he is himself" playing out. This is obviously a program running, all I can do is pointing out some common sense and hope he will get it or remember when he is older.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cool, and why even limiting yourself to be citizens of the earth, why not just be living beings of this entire existence.

    ReplyDelete