“To be is to do” — Socrates
“To do is to be” — Sartre
“Do be do be do” — Sinatra
Progressives, statists, whatever need people to be divorced from their own common sense.
So they come up with all these group identities, victimologies, etc.
Starts with denying the soul, then devolving love and family into thrill seeking (sex, drugs, etc.).
In all of human life’s expanse and breath, throughout all recorded time, all the attempts to ‘kill the individual’ have always failed, and here’s why:
Until the 20th Century, and the devices of that century, there was no way to exterminate more than one human being in the exact same instance.
Therefore, and still today, when the individual dies, they die alone, even among grieving friends and family, or buddies in battle, it is the individual, only, that dies.
I do not take life as a subjective affair.
I am an individual, born into this world as such, and will leave, when the time comes, as such.
I am an American. There is no subject to debate.
I am a military veteran.
I am of half-breed descendency, Mojave and Prussian.
I am a rabid ‘American for America FIRST’.
Subjectivity is always open to change and revision, as the day wanes, and the winds blow, and with the competency of those to whom you submit your subjectivity.
Individuals cannot submit, because they understand that is they, and they alone, that must do what must be done, no matter how loud the catcalls arise.
Ayn Rand would be laughing -- or shouting. She knew that "A is A" is fundamental to rational thought and rational behavior.
A is no longer A, but a pull-down menu.
In the sci-fi series “Dune”, there was a quote in their futuristic medieval society, “a place for every man and every man in his place” with the caveat “destroy the place, destroy the man”.
When you say “I am”, it is an absolute others can’t take away. I am X is non-negotiable, unless they call you a liar.
When you say “I identify as” gives others the ability to say that identity doesn’t include you. If they argue that their definition doesn’t include you, you’re excluded. And it opens the door to inter-sectionality, where they are MORE X than you because they have multiple check-boxes and BETTER than you for having checks in more categories.
Feminists are seeing this with transgendered (crazy guys) claiming to be feminists AND LBGTA, so feminists who don’t like transgendered guys getting awards for bravery or top paid women CEO are told to shut up. Ditto white feminists told to shut up because colored feminists trump them.
And you get the insane political litmus tests for membership, so if you’re this race, you’re supposed to meet a long check list of approved beliefs in order to be accepted as that identity. If you ARE X, you can have whatever beliefs you want. Identity politics, though, puts as much stock in politics as identity - and don’t agree with the cause de jour, and you lose your identity while being attacked for non-conformity by those whose acceptance you rely on most for validation.
In short, identity politics is turning into a place for everyone and everyone in their place based on demographic check boxes and dystopian group-think plus shaming for non-conformance. Stand as an individual, and you’re outside the system and a threat to be destroyed.
And it all becomes possible when replacing “I am” with “I identify as”, giving the nagging social manipulators the opening to put you in your place that they assign.
bump