Identity and Beliefs

Beliefs are a core part of a person's identity. They are not physical attributes of someone's face or body, nor are they necessarily skillsets that are marketed for economic benefit.

     Even so, beliefs form one of the most important parts of a person's identity; the structure and content of their mind.  I've talked a lot about beliefs in previous posts and how I relate to them and how I view them. I view beliefs as ideas and concepts you view to be true, whether in the face of great certainty or great uncertainty.

       Beliefs form such a massive part of a person's identity that a person wouldn't be who they are without them. It's not a coincidence that the words "identity" and "idea" share the same etymology and root. 

       Our ideas about life and our mental idea about ourselves and who we are naturally form some of the core tenets of our belief system and as a result a core component of our identities.

     In fact, one of the great problems with ideologies and belief systems in regards to political and social stability is the identity component. People who tie their identity so strongly into their beliefs and ideas about life or existence to the point where objective reasoning is compromised and their degree of certainty about their "rightness" is close to 100% are the people who take any slight on their beliefs as a personal attack on themselves.

Naturally, this creates problems in society and politics. It leads to groupthink and collectivization of minds. Ideologies like to consolidate human beings into hierarchies and groups, so they can better do work in the physical world and achieve their objectives. 

When humans subscribe to a belief system, naturally identity becomes a significant component of our mental transformation and conformity to the information that our belief systems are constructed out of.

 We "identify" as christians. We "identify" as liberals. We "identify" as Americans. All those identities I mentioned get their foundation and "spirit" in a sense from the information and ideas that construct those identities and belief systems.

It's hard to get around this.

We all have identities and beliefs. 

It's not always a bad thing to be part of a group. In a world full of predators and evil people, there is strength and security in belonging to a group identity.

The problem comes when your identity and your beliefs compromise your ability to reason and overthrows your individuality. If this happens, you can be led to do whatever the leaders of your identity group want you to do.

      This is how genocides get much of their enabling. 

        Individuality and avoiding the pitfalls of collectivism and groupthink are essential in the development and maintaining of a person's freedom of thought.

      Avoiding the "certainty trap" where you think your beliefs are absolutely correct is a major step in preventing you from getting sucked into groupthink. In groupthink, much of your independent mental faculties are overthrown in favor a views more suitable to the group's overall objectives.

      I try to be as independent as I can with my thoughts. I try to be an individual as much as I can be. Even so, I still have an identity and am tied to certain groups in society. I have to be. It's the only way to survive.  

     However, the reason I try to avoid being tied to strongly in identity groups is that identity grouping and categorizing of human beings almost always leads to "us-or-them" combativeness and the identifying of an enemy.

 Naturally, being tied into certain particular groups prevents me from having the independence to engage with and converse with whoever I want and whenever there is an opportunity. 

This kind of liberty gives me the ability to access certain information through conversations that if I was tied to particular identity groups, the conversation wouldn't have the opportunity to happen.

I do this for no other motive or objective than to learn about the world I am in so I can develop my own identity and my own worldview unique to me. I learn from conversation and I develop my thoughts with what I learn from other people. 

Individuality has so much more freedom than collectivism.