Re:Jack Kerouac: still roadworthy after 100 years
by jonjacky on Sunday March 13, 2022 @10:04PM
(#30667775)
Yes. The author Edmund White writes [1],
"... As a true American I do believe in identity politics, I believe that the personal can be political and I believe that, for better or for worse, my sexual identity is crucial to who I am. ... But I hold this view only because I feel that to grow up in a religious society that oppresses and stigmatizes homosexuals creates a gay identity, and that one can only liberate oneself by affirming that identity, by transforming what was despised into what is valued.
I'm not an essentialist ... I certainly don't think that this essence must be declared or avowed. I do, however, believe that a definition that has been imposed on the individual must be defended and transcended.
[1] Lost in the Funhouse by Edmund White, in TLS May 19 2006
The obsession with identity is not in its subject, but in the majority observers.
> Obsession with identity is narcissistic by its very nature.
Ironically, actual narcisissm isn't focused on oneself as much as focus on everyone else - everyone else in the family, the organization, etc. has to be exactly what the narcissist wants them to be, to make the world exactly what the narcissist needs to feel safe.
That is similar to the identity situation we are discussing: The narcisissm is in the observer, who insists that the subjects should behave and act as the observer wishes.