Identity politics goes well with a consumerist approach to life, since one can rather passively "choose" one's product (often in a way that is seen to enhance one's self-image or 'lifestyle choices). Then one sits back and expects the 'product' to perform. It's all quite superficial. The idea that Obama must necessarily perform acts in solidarity with oppressed people because of his skin color is false. People need to get over the idea that 'identity' is a transparent and obvious signal of motivation. It isn't.
This discomfort one experiences must be substantial, otherwise humans have a tendency to be conservative and to try to "adapt" to the circumstances they are in, rather than try to change them. This approach seems to be ingrained in us at something like a biological level. Part of the problem seems to be in the way our biological hardware enables us to adapt to our cultural and environmental circumstances at an early age. So, if we grow up in a system of capitalism, we will find that capitalism also comes to define our emotional determinants. We learn a capitalist subjectivity, which can be so hard to change that it seems to us like "human nature".
It may have something to do with this neurological mechanism:
Clearly people have been on the wrong path with their forms of moral leftisms and identity politics. Identity politics dominates the left when what is needed is a more considered and critical approach.
The need for a more substantial basis for action other than identity is made palpable by the fact that identity has become a repository for ideas of moral goodness and evil. Because of this, we do not see the human being and his or her capacity for thought and for action. Instead, we see an "identity" with a powerful code attached suggesting either "good" or "evil".
Although there is a historical basis for seeing certain groups of people as oppressed or as oppressors, contemporary ways of treating identity go way beyond this recognition to the point that psychological forces within society as a whole are directed towards assuring that identities remain fixed on the basis of our inner needs to have a sense of moral certainty about our worlds. We learn to project our sense of "good" into certain types of identity, and the parts of ourselves that we would disown as "evil" into other identities. This seems to be the case with both the left and the right.
Thus, "identities", although originally historically created and developed, become psychological fictions to amuse ourselves by. These have next to nothing to do with serious politics, but disguise actual political processes.
This discomfort one experiences must be substantial, otherwise humans have a tendency to be conservative and to try to "adapt" to the circumstances they are in, rather than try to change them. This approach seems to be ingrained in us at something like a biological level. Part of the problem seems to be in the way our biological hardware enables us to adapt to our cultural and environmental circumstances at an early age. So, if we grow up in a system of capitalism, we will find that capitalism also comes to define our emotional determinants. We learn a capitalist subjectivity, which can be so hard to change that it seems to us like "human nature".
It may have something to do with this neurological mechanism:
I will suggest that in addition to being a neural repository for innate forms of behavior, the striatal complex constitutes part of a storage mechanism for parroting learned forms of emotional and intellective behavior acquired through the participation of limbic and neocortical systems."
CEREBRAL EVOLUTION AND EMOTIONAL PROCESSES:NEW FINDINGS ON THE STRIATAL COMPLEXPaul D. MacLeanLaboratory of Brain Evolution and Behavior
Clearly people have been on the wrong path with their forms of moral leftisms and identity politics. Identity politics dominates the left when what is needed is a more considered and critical approach.
The need for a more substantial basis for action other than identity is made palpable by the fact that identity has become a repository for ideas of moral goodness and evil. Because of this, we do not see the human being and his or her capacity for thought and for action. Instead, we see an "identity" with a powerful code attached suggesting either "good" or "evil".
Although there is a historical basis for seeing certain groups of people as oppressed or as oppressors, contemporary ways of treating identity go way beyond this recognition to the point that psychological forces within society as a whole are directed towards assuring that identities remain fixed on the basis of our inner needs to have a sense of moral certainty about our worlds. We learn to project our sense of "good" into certain types of identity, and the parts of ourselves that we would disown as "evil" into other identities. This seems to be the case with both the left and the right.
Thus, "identities", although originally historically created and developed, become psychological fictions to amuse ourselves by. These have next to nothing to do with serious politics, but disguise actual political processes.
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