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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. Long who wrote (4955)	4/26/1999 4:58:00 AM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 17770

Identity is not, nor can it be, wholly constructed. When we ask the question "Who am I?", we consider it something to discover, not something to make up. But the predicates must have meaning to us. Although people were not always happy with aspects of their identity, and would have wished to change them, at least in the past they had "thick" identities, consequent upon a strong sense of social location and belonging. Now, they tend to have "thin" identities, and have a strong urge to self- assertion and self- invention. The problem is that we still largely identify ourselves in terms of social recognition, and although the fluidity of society allows for a number of what Tom Wolfe called "status-spheres", it muddies the value of achievement, by eliminating a clear, useable matrix. It also puts an unreasonable onus on the individual for his or her own fate, who is constantly exhorted to realize his "potential", as if the vagueries of fortune had been eliminated...