The Chains of Identity

Identities are manufactured and sold to us, like they're products on the shelf of a supermarket, just waiting to be groped at by an eager hand. They entice us to stray from not only ourselves, but also the world around us, for the moment we confine ourselves to a single identity group is the moment we decide what we are and aren’t willing to experience, what we are and aren’t willing to feel, what we are and aren’t willing to be.

But isn’t that the point? Of being, that is. We choose what we are and what we aren’t, we choose how we want to live and how we don’t want to live… but what if it could be otherwise? What if we lived in a world where one was all and all was one? What if we lived in a world where, like a flowing river, we never stayed in one place, where, like the wind, we whistled lightly through grass and flowers, happy, light footed, free from all worry, from all toil and trouble. 

The truth is, we could live in that world. And we should live in that world. But talking about how things should or shouldn’t be is pointless, is it not? What matters is not how we feel things should be, but how they are, and how they will be. So I will not say they should be that way. I say that they will be that way. I say that one day, we will be free from these identities, these foul chains that have been forced upon us by the master that we can’t even see. I say loudly that I reject the premises upon which society has hitherto been based, that I reject the inherent unfreedom of class, of politics, of law and of money. I stand upon the shoulders of giants and loudly declare not my birthright, but our birthright, which is, simultaneously, everything and nothing. Everything, because everything belongs to us, and nothing, because nothing is certain. 

I declare proudly the necessity of a truly free society, a truly just society, a society of joy and plenty. But such a world is not guaranteed. We must make it with our very own hands, here and now. We must wander the neverending halls of the mind in an endless search for novelty, for newness. We must wander in search of new possibilities, new futures, and new selves, selves which are defined not by what they reject, but by what they affirm.

Make no mistake, this will not be an easy journey. Those who undertake it will spend many a long night facing the harsh reality of loneliness and solitude, exile and despair. There will be many times when it feels like all hope is lost. Many will never find their way out, and will remain forever trapped in those twisting and tortuous ruins. But for those who succeed, for those who manage to push through the darkness and reach the light… well, who knows? I certainly don't. And I may never. But I will at least be consoled by the knowledge that I tried, and that is enough for me.

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