In an earlier article, I argued that we shouldn’t decide who we are. While we all need to create ourselves, we will always be incomplete, potentialities.
I pointed out that people in 21st century America are forced to demonstrate who they are. We are all, no matter who we are, born with labels and expectations based on our gender, our appearance, the social class of our parents, and our mental and physical abilities, that are difficult to ignore or completely get away from. But the fact remains that we have more choices presented to us than people living in just about any other society in history. Too many choices to count. Maybe too many, period.
We often respond to this dilemma by trying to determine what makes us unique, and worthy of admiration and sympathy, and ensuring that other people notice these qualities as much as possible. By branding.
In a country where corporations are people, people are becoming corporations.
This tendency toward an unstable sense of self, toward creating a character, and the need to get other people to invest in this character with their affection, attention, and hostility (as long as it’s hostility from the right people, for the right reasons) works. Narcissism is potent fuel for capitalism.
It’s easy to look Donald Trump and assure yourself you aren’t a narcissist. But even if you aren’t one to a pathological degree, this is the basic blueprint for the personality of an American born in the last several dozen decades. We’re trained to seek recognition of our talents, status, wealth, and then (especially if we feel we didn’t get enough of these things) seek to get them indirectly though our children by raising them the same way. Western culture, since ancient Greece, has increasingly over its history emphasized "the individual," meaning, presumably you, whoever you are, and in 21st century this has become neurotic. We often feel adrift, and we cling to our own personal identities as our foundations.
It’s easy to feel like the way to satisfaction, to authenticity, to knowing the great person you feel you really are and getting other people to see it, too, is introspection: plumbing the depths of your mind to try to find these qualities and bring them to the surface. You’re too complicated for even you to understand. In the end, we decide and reveal our true selves not inside ourselves, but outside ourselves, in the world, with what we do. We should show ourselves, and each other, who we are by demonstrating what we love in our actions.
