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| Courtesy: Shift Canada |
Through the history of 6000 years of civilization, human beings were experiencing prosperity and perils, life and death, wealth and poverty, war and peace, civilization and the destruction of that glorious age of their highest existence, freedom and slavery, natural disasters of various kinds (flooding, earth quakes, volcanic eruptions, land slides, hurricanes, thunderstorms, Tsunami’s …etc), nuclear catastrophes of recent times from Chernobyl to Fukushima (man-made), epidemic diseases of mostly bacterial and viral causes…etc… To put it plainly, human being was under the mighty influence of two great movers and shakers of his history: Man-made (Inside him) and Natural (Outside him) Catastrophes.
Out of those two categories of catastrophes, human beings have tried to overcome most of the natural calamities that were threats to their survival in relative terms, through their advancements in thinking and acting in the fields of Philosophy, Science and Technology at the most general level, though the vast majority of reactions to such dangers took thousands of years-the invention of Anti-biotic, for instance- needed great sacrifices of humans from the humble to the noble, the baby to the elder, the profane to the enlightened, the slave to the master… And what can be deduced at least at the analytic level of understanding is the fact that human beings were successful at eradicating some, managing many and being doubtful and vigilant, even confused and attacked accidentally, at and by the rest of the natural enemies of human being, which are found outside him- either mentally or physically but have their microcosmic models ideally sheltered in the brains of those humans of perpetual struggle against the two basic threats of their existence mentioned above.
But the problem arises on the other side of the looking glass, where human beings have lost the power of controlling the anthropogenic, (man-made) threats: wars, ethnic cleansing, slavery, identity crises, economic down turn, hostile arms race, cultural eclipse where people cover their face with a mask that never fits (other people’s identity practiced without the intention to defend one’s own and the ignorance that the second, borrowed culture is the best, the false mask that never fits). Out of those ‘man-eaters’ of human beings’ creations, though some of them were given relatively safe-deposit boxes (Pandora’s Boxes), as an asylum with a committed lock, while others were left in the hot sun to melt, evaporate and eventually be inhaled by their creators.
Among those, one of such things left without custodians or what can be labelled orphan man-made catastrophe, is IDENTITY MANIA (Identity crises), to be discussed in this article of observation and analysis. This chapter of the history of human beings has been a piece of the mirror of the history of humanity of human beings at different times, among different people and in different kingdoms and empires of the world. Identity, the power of consciousness built upon the pillars of conscience could probably have received hospitality from the Ancients than the Presents, for the Ancients believed, “Consciousness if the beginning and essence of life” as distinct from the realm of the unconscious class of the dead, the ideally non-existent creation and life is a line of reference for comparing the power of each and every living and non-living creatures of this 4.5 billion years old, mystic Earth. Though it has been developing and later became consolidated conspiracy theory of human being itself, to control, eliminate, confuse and sometimes convince the human race he thinks is suffering from Inferiority Complex, of his own invention what has come to be left alone in a no-man’s land without custodians who could be guarding it against its growth and destruction.
As I have tried to explain above the Ancients were relatively better at managing their heritages of light or dark kinds. For instance, in Ancient Nubia and Egypt, the people of both kingdoms strive to know their environment from their inner self, their identity to the outer vast horizon of the Universal Kingdom of Space, though the degree to which there is a flexibility either of the state or the people to have or allow this attempt to understand and use it to one’s advantage varies spatially and temporally. And one of those activities of Investigative Curiosity was the major theme of this essay, is the issue of identity consciousness and preservation. Identity in the context of this essay should be understood as having two faces: [1] A thing to be expressed either in form of differences or similarities, a major area of interest in the fields of studies like Political Science, Anthropology, Sociology, Politics of Identity…etc. [2] in the form of having attributes that compose a unique conscious creature, the human being, another explanation from Ayn Rand’s Philosophy of Objectivism. Corresponding to [1], as to the part that constitutes similarities human beings are mostly ignorant of the potential of these homogeneity-based characteristics, to divide mankind into poles and make him engage in mutually destructive game of thrones for he emotionally and morally thinks they are the symbols of humanity in the form of a consensus of peace and harmony towards a common frontier of uncertain and spontaneous catastrophes due to greater degree of ignorance. On the difference frontier, a frontier that could emerge from distinctions based on race, religion, language, wisdom, material wealth, physical stamina, gender, color…etc, the same parameters for the similarity frontier above, mankind’s power of managing them in a harmonious and balanced, logical manner shows frequent signs of faltering. Though the reasons for the failure are not mostly clearly stated or are left to be a common knowledge in acquiescence, due to various other interrelated and complex reasons, these failures have proved to be futile and fatal to the existence of human beings as a conscious and ‘conceptual’ being and species of the animal kingdom.
As we commonly know previously, for the vast majority of the people of world, identity crises of various sorts (racial, religious, knowledge-based [philosophical crisis] , economic, social on the most general levels) have been endangering the survival of a certain group of people as an independent, conscious, and self-directing creatures.
And later on, these pandemic strikes repeated over time have shown a tendency of them being worn by some individuals of unconscious background, either due intentionally or by ignorance , and with and artificially embedded consciousness, who have no idea about its ends. The first sight of those individuals oriented by external sense of self-image reinforced by people of outside and distinct identity, they have been witnessed exhibiting a typical behavior of exchanging the wrong mask and haunting themselves for the very mistake they made in letting themselves do that act and for they have found themselves wearing the wrong face. Those people either noble or humble, wealthy or modest, were human beings hatched from the right egg but were found sucking from the wrong breast. A phenomenon we see in the Children’s Classical story, “The Ugly Duck”. And what happens through time is that their accusation against the depravity of the identity, despite by their own ignorant move and choice, have made them look for scapegoats to blame and to bear the shame of their ignorance for them while it should have been them, as pioneers and initiators of the trouble, who should answer the question WHY not themselves inside-out and start the Identity Recovery Project by themselves for it is logically to them that the task belongs and no one might care for them, if they have failed to do it right away on their own in the first position.
In order to cover up their weaknesses above, they have been engaged in spreading the seeds of ideal self-denial, profanity, ethnic hatred, and above all, the destructive poisonous seeds of the unconsciousness ivy of Identity Mania, abnormal state of losing the mirror of humanity that could have served the purpose of being self-conscious either in terms of introspection or extrospection [topics to be discussed in the future].
Despite this mania have been torturing the minds of many people through the eons and at various stages of human history, what has been observed in this state of confusion is that the disease has been released out of Pandora’s Box once, and its span of control arranged by the higher degree of human beings ignorance to deter it, for its ever expanding and fatal mental infections was minimal as compared to the capability available to human beings to deter, minimize and eradicate it.
To conclude the story there are certain questions that demand answers from readers of this article, for the simple narration of the case might create misconceptions save that it may even over simplify its real features. Despite that, the major questions to be addressed by Dear Readers are the following:
- Why and How did Identity mania basically emerge? When and where, if possible.
- How long would it continue to make such identity-less zombies?
- How long would it take to solve this puzzle?
- What approaches and methods are there to hospitalize Identity Mania, if the time frame for its management is pre-determined or not?
- If there is a solution found, how long would it be sustained?
THANK YOU FOR READING AND REACTING TO MY QUESTIONS!
