marți, 7 mai 2019

About identity

I just a watched a Joe Rogan podcast with Eddie Izzard, a comedian that I like for his smart jokes.
For my surprise I found out that he oscillates between being a man and a woman.
I heard about people who felt that they were a woman in male body or vice versa, but never about a person that changes its gender monthly.
That made think about identity.
I think that till 18-25 years our identity is determined by our environment.
Your gender, to what climate you were born, in which continent, in which culture, in which family you live mark your development forever.
So if you want to know who you are you should look around you and understand.
Only after you take decisions and you modify your environment, which in turn affects you, you start to have an identity that is somewhat independent of your environment.
This might explain why people rationalise their motives. Their actions make part of their identity, and since people in general love themselves and consider that they are good, this means that their actions are good or at least had good intentions.
So no wonder criminals blame the victims for their acts.
The oldest example for this is the ransacking of Troy and killing of population who was explained by Homer by the kidnapping of Helen by Paris.
Also by removing the rights to act  of a person you can prevent it from developing an independent identity and the person can be the prisoner of the group.
This can be seen in how the women were treated in world wide till second world war and how the women are still treated in some Muslim countries.Also it is evident in communist countries were private initiative was stifled and decisions were took by some bureaucrats.
Maybe the lack of options to develop an independent identity explains the Stockholm syndrome, where hostages identify with their captors, or the Nazi doctors who could  kill children because during work hours they identify themselfs as SS.
But lets return to the case of Eddie Izzard. He tells that he was harassed because he was dressed as a woman.
This makes me wonder which is the threshold were you should accept  the opinion of others and change your identity.
If you believe that you are good singer despite evidence, then you will continue to ruin your life by pursuing a career that is dead end and you will alienate you friends who don't want to hear your screams.
On the other side if you are a good singer, and everyone is bullying you, you might ruin your life because you limited yourself.
I don't have a god answer, but the best way is to try and see if it is working.
By trying I know for sure that I am not a good musician. :)



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