The Illusion of Identity

 My father, the only centenarian I have known personally, used to tell the story of when he first took my mother home to meet his family on the family farm down in a very rural corner of southeastern South Dakota. They all thought Mom was very nice, but the betting had run high on a local gal. And someone, I was never sure just quite who, did point out that Mom was “Nicht von unserer.” Not one of ours. When my first wife and I moved to Raleigh back in 1980 many of our neighbors invited us to attend church with them. The fact that she was Jewish and I was “unchurched” (a new word for me) led to some awkward moments.

We apparently set large store by identity, there seems to be great comfort in it. Philosophical, religious, political, racial, gender, clan, whatever. The common mindset is always “us and them.” Our people. Those others. There is a great hue and cry regarding identity around the globe today. Whether the focus is hyper-local squabbles within the homeowners association, the school board, town planning commission, etc., or national, Republican versus Democrat, conservative versus liberal, or global, East versus West, 1st World versus Developing Nations. It all boils down to “us versus them.”  I am incredibly tired of all the bickering. As the old 1961 musical put it, Stop The World, I Want to Get Off.

As a long-time fan of science fiction I like to consider a galactic perspective. I’m not quite sure I am ready to buy the veracity of the of the former Israeli Space Security Chief who asserted in a December 9, 2020 Wall Street Journal article that a “galactic federation” has long been in touch with “earth leaders” but the aliens are denying us membership because we “aren’t ready.” Still, as I look at “the news” I am inclined to seriously consider that notion. Or as Groucho Marx put it, “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me for a member.”

We do, as earthlings, spend a mind-boggling amount of human lives and treasure squabbling over immature political, social, and philosophical issues - which at the core are all the same issue: “We are better than you, nah, nah, nah.” This where you stick out your tongue, put your thumbs in your ears and waggle your fingers.  “My candidate, my religion, my age group, my gender, my athletic team, my genetic heritage, my ancestors, my, my, my! Nah! Nah!” Meanwhile, the planet upon which we all, regardless of our cherished identity, must live, is going to hell in a handbag. We really, really, need to just grow up. We need to put aside our petty differences and realize that we “humanity” is singular, with only one identity. Otherwise there is no hope that the galactic federation will warn us when the asteroid is going to hit, or provide us with the space transports necessary to get us all to Earth II. 

Without coming to that realization that we are a singular identity and act like cooperating adults, well, grab your handbag ‘cause we are going to hell and taking the planet with us. For the more hopeful, that just leaves us with Elon Musk and terraforming Mars. OK. He is brilliant. A little more fine tuning on the batteries, the self-driving gizmo, and some reasonable pricing, and well, there might be a Tesla in our future. But are you really comfortable with Elon’s Mars as the only option for the future of our singular identity?

.