The Economics of Identity
Identity is the favourite narrative in the progressive media, public discourse and activist causes that are always there to raise their voice for minority issues and everything that might shed some light on those frequently cast aside. We grow up with identities, developing it as we go, aspirations and values our family and community instill in us. You might say that raising a child is also a form of indoctrination, though a subtler one, where children are treated like Pavlov’s dogs, awarded for obeying to rules they didn’t set. That’s why cancel culture developed, as a form of punishment without prisons or gulags. Which is pathetic because it’s suppose to imply that it’s less dismissive and cruel. It’s the majority that creates the social cancellation patterns, for castouts that refuse to play along or get carried away by too much power. Identities are political, they are rights granted by the public census deeming them legitimate and consequential. The question of identity-any sort of identity-is essentially a question of status and power. We’re constantly being bombarded by stories of discrimination from all over the world, and it paints a grim and disappointing picture of a society where skin color, gender or sexual orientation can determine your trajectory in life, things you can expect and what is possible. But rarely ever will you be confronted with the cruel reality that you might identify yourself even as a Kakapo, an exotic, almost extinct bird, if you’ve got a social status that protects you from being bullied or discriminated for it. That’s how some people get away with murder, while others do not. It’s all about power: you have to be able to afford yourself an identity that parts of society find inacceptable. The flamboyant Ru Paul might be exposed to all sorts of things if she weren’t a rich celebrity. Hence, your identity reveals your vulnerability, but social standing determines the way it might reflect on your daily life. John Lennon might be telling us that all we need is love, but all we need is political power, if we want to love whoever we choose, or chose to be in the end. This is why the left-leaning discourse tends to focus on the wrong things in terms of identity issues. It might be its nature, importance or protection. But the very necessity of status for freedom of choice means the neo-liberal world that’s so open and inclusive to minorities nowadays isn’t really inclusive at all. You’ll be welcomed with open arms everywhere if you’re at home on Millionaire’s Row in Manhattan, and there won’t be too many question as to the origins of the money you bought it with. It might include all sorts of not necessarily legal channels but in the social constellation we live in, it doesn’t matter much anyway, as long as you stick to flamboyancy, instead of meddling in politics. After all, Trump meant what he said about killing someone in broad daylight in Manhattan. Primarily because it’s true, at least for the likes of him on the same level of the social ladder. The triumph of the elites consists in the illusion that their voters can influence the social paradigm. Occasionally, there might occur breaking points like Occupy Wall Street or BLM, but even those are basically angry barking dogs on a leash the length of which depends on the current mood of the ruling classes that will find a new favourite issue to deal with sooner or later. Putin and Zelensky pushed George Floyd out of international focus; hardly anyone, maybe apart from FOX News anchors, remembers what Hillary Clinton’s email problem was about. And it’s a pattern that keeps repeating. Society is shaped like a pyramid, where the elemental issues are at the very foundation: corruption, nepotism and elitism. It created an inpenetrable core that controls everything else above it- economy, culture, education, etc. The Emperor Alexander had a devoted male lover. In the movie adaptation, Colin Farell embodies the handsome, self-conscious emperor smitten by a skinny lad wearing not much more than black eyeliner and braided hair, screaming with cultural stereotypes. Had it been anyone but the emperor, people might have had a very different view of the blazing passion between the two men. And it’s not very different today either. A change that will profoundy effect everything and grant us freedom without blackmail must hit first and foremost into that corrupt core that prevents the change itself. If you’re in the protected core, no identity you might project is an issue because you’re free to do as you please. This is what we need to understand, and sometimes it seems we don’t. Roots need to reach deep into the ground in order for the tree to flourish and grow. We need to fight to be a part of the discussion, to have a seat at the table of power. Anything else might prove to be a waste of time, or merely a short distraction. And then we will have the opportunity to put important issues, like the troubles of having an identity at all, into the focus again. The opportunity won’t happen too many times, so we will need to find that door, and make sure we walk through when we do. So that, maybe, in a forseeable future, identity becomes an affordable prerogative for everyone, instead of a luxury for the elites; a closet with enough room for all their hidden skeletons. It’s possible. But it requires a lot of work and facing up to inconvenient truths where some of those championing the idea might fall victim to their own hypocrisy. We need action and progression instead of theories and narratives. But we are the ones who have to make the first move, if we want to achieve our goal. It’s certainly worth fighting for.
