As I was bombin' around several sites tonight I noticed something. Everywhere I went, people were declaring themselves to be an "ist" of some kind.
No matter the reasons, good, bad, what have you, there seems to be this headlong rush to "define" yourself by some label in life. Hell, even I've done it by considering myself a "real" ist. But it was something that I didn't really think about. It was, to me, simply a way to describe my own personal philosophy, my own way of looking at life.
But its not really "me", ya know? It's an attitude more than anything.
There's more to me than just being some kind of 'ist', and yet, as easy as it is for me to say it, it seems like others really get into defining themselves, like its some kind of drive, or need, or compulsion.
Now, don't get me wrong, I dont' think I'm better, or anything like that. It's more like...why?
I've talked about something similar to this before here, I think. Something about kids identifying or pretendin to be someone else, like their favorite sports star. But it's not the same thing.
I get why people pick easily identifiable acronyms or names, etc... I just don't understand the need why.
Why limit yourself with such narrow definitions of who you are when people are infinitely variable, a rich pallet of so many different experiences and origins?
Anyway, no real response needed, though feel free to if you wish. Just wanted to get it off my mind and this place is the perfect place for it.
Posted by cleome45 on :
Well, as the cliche goes, R:
It's the internets. Words are all we have.
Or the older version: Here, we're all just brains in jars.
I don't think a label has to define the absolute limits of what a person is, but it can be a shorthand way of showing others what they can expect of you right after the introduction. It's a guidepost. Like when you go to an interview, you want your hair and clothes to look clean and neat as a way of saying: I'll pay attention to my surroundings and the people here just like I've paid attention to my own appearance before arriving. Posted by Anita Cocktail on :
I'm an alcoholist!!
Posted by cleome45 on :
You're a brain in a jar full of vodka gimlet mix. Posted by Dev - Em on :
The older I get, the more I dislike labels.
Liberal / Conservative
Introvert / Extrovert
It's like people expect you to be one or the other of two choices (the two above being the first ones that popped into my head), while I find myself wanting to answer "yes" to people if they ask me if I am one or the other.
Posted by Quislet, Esq on :
Today I saw an anti-gay article that referred to "homosexualists". I was thought it was too funny.
As for labels. Well first I look at it as if someone calls you something (for good or bad) that is a label. What you call yourself is part of your identity. And of course all the good labels we do incorporate into our identity.
One of my identities is that of a gay man. And I have feilded the questions of why are you labeling yourself and can't you just be yourself without narrowly defining yourself. The thing is that in our society there is the heterosexual assumption. Basically, people will assume that you are a heterosexual or to get away from labels that you find the opposite gender sexually desirable. Of course, that is not me. And in one way, I feel it would be dishonest to not correct the assumption.
As for taking on other "__ist"s, I don't feel like they limit me. They are handy for expressing parts of my identity. And that is why I think people use them for themselves and on other people. They are handy. It is kind of like the difference between buying tiles to lay a floor and buying those sheets of tiles to lay a floor. That is what I would say is the nned why. It gets a bunch of stuff out of the way so we can focus on the important stuff like Do you think Lester Spiffany ever figured out why the Legion rejected him?
Posted by rickshaw1 on :
Exactly, Dev. I lean conservative, but I'm far from a "real" conservative. I mean, just look at the friends I have here. I'm straight, but the big joke with the folks I know on Facebook is that my friends gallery is 70% gay. I'm a country boy that don't hunt because I wont waste an animal's life as the only person in the family that would eat it. I was a timber buyer, but I'm also a guy that understands and promotes reseeding.
but, when you pick an 'ist' to be, its like saying "this is what I am. You now know everything about me, what my reactions will be, how I will respond in each cerebral situation."
It's like people are told, "you're free", and then immediately set about creating a brand new cage fro themselves. I don't get that.
Posted by Dev - Em on :
Quis, and I may be off base here, but I think that things that define you that are not open for discussion (your homosexuality, my diabetes) are not really labels. Those are facts that help make us who we are.
When we start getting into things that we can control (am I liberal, conservative or somewhere in between), those are labels. With them comes a predetermined idea of what that means you believe.
To me, that is the difference...Ric may have a totally different thought on that.
Posted by He Who Wanders on :
Everybody has a need to belong to something, and labels tend to satisfy that sense of belonging, it seems.
The problem is that labels can be taken too far. They encourage people to pidgeonhole others into certain categories of beliefs and attitudes. Worse, they may encourage people to limit themselves. ("I'm a liberal so I must support x so my liberal friends don't think I'm a fake.")
Today in class, one of my students made a comment (joking, perhaps) about "uneducated liberals". I said something to the effect of "as opposed to educated liberals," to which he responded there was no such thing: liberals were by definition uneducated. I then said I tend to be somewhat liberal in my politics. The student sitting in front of the first turned around and made some sort of gesture which I took to mean, "That proves your point."
It was a funny moment -- frankly, I don't care if my students think I have a clue or not (sometimes, I don't), but, even in joking, the student's comments drove home how easy it is to create cardboard-cutout mental impressions of people based on how they are identified or how they identify themselves. Sadly, in the era of soundbites, it's becoming increasingly convenient to rely on the simplest definitions possible instead of bothering with nuanced thinking.
Posted by Legion Tracker on :
quote:Originally posted by Dev - Em: It's like people expect you to be one or the other of two choices..., while I find myself wanting to answer "yes" to people if they ask me if I am one or the other.
I do say "yes," and I'm doing it more and more often. And sometimes I'll add that I try to use my brain for critical thinking, and my heart for compassion, and they don't like to stay inside the lines.
Posted by Kent Shakespeare on :
Well, Rick, for whatever it's worth, I agree.
Perhaps one part of it could be that so many are looking to impose labels on any of us all the time that it might be a way to beat them to the punch? Plenty of people can seem like they are looking for an excuse to dismiss someone else; 'oh you're just a _____ist.'
That's my off-the-cuff hypothesis, anyway, and it certainly doesn't apply to everyone who does what you describe.
Another thought: times of polarization have, at times in the past, seemed to prompt people to choose a rigid side and defend it, right or wrong. I think a lot of today's polarization is a media construct, but yet a certain percentage of people buy into it.
![[Brain-Globe of Rampart]](graemlins/BrainGlobe.gif)
![[Fruit Boy]](graemlins/FruitBoy.gif)