Context: Gilles Deleuze moved away from the idea that we are born with a permanent “essence,” suggesting that what we call “identity” is actually just a by-product of movement and change. He argues that categorisation is often a restrictive trap, whereas the reality of life is a fluid state of becoming that refuses to stay inside neat boxes. An individual isn’t a quantifiable definable thing, but a collection of shifting connections that are constantly reconfiguring into something new.
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I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while actually producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronius Arbiter
Now if only he was talking about people and not training an army.
People are wholly unique beings, that grow and change. We cannot fit comfortably in one box, defined by a mere word.
I think that armies are made of people and that psychology behind them are still prevalent to the individual.
Because yeah, we change culturally what is the in group or demand people define themselves. Labels bring comfort like a drug. Simplifies the world. We can’t always resist the use of drugs and some are helpful despite symptoms. But we should not be unable to change or stop using them.
Swapping drills because your boss says “this is a better one” and swapping it again a few days later is not character growth, it is micromanaging looking for something to do.
And labels never accurately reflect a person. We should strive to stop simplifying ourselves and accept the complexity of personhood. All we have done by trying to label people is cause harm and misunderstanding.
