*Identity Politics and Tribal Gods*

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AS/Autism, sex, and gender, race and sexuality, etc, as "tribal gods"/religions.

Perhaps identity politics is the modern form/expression of the ancient systems of tribal gods, but rather than worshipping one, ( or more ), particular gods because of where you live, ( though geography does play a role in which identity someone is likely to choose ), or which tribe you belong to by blood or marriage, you choose according to "taste"/personality/class/education, etc, etc, etc.

The believer gets courage, strength, affirmation from belonging to a group, but also from the symbol/identity label itself, which "blesses" them, ( forgives them their sins, tells them they are perfect in the eyes of their "god/identity", etc ).

There are all kinds of believers; fundamentalist, evangelist, "catholic", protestant, universalist, ( even buddhist ? ), aswell as "atheists" ( dubious about the objective reality of the "identity" itself, but attached, even loyal, to the symbol/group because they get something out of it. See my answer to Henriksson below for explanation of this ). And among these different "churches" of belief there are those who believe because they have been brought up to, and those who come to it ( relatively ) "independently", etc.

In the case of AS/Autism the priests are the psychiatrists and scientists. And books and films about AS are greeted as the word of god if they say the right thing and as heresy if they don't. People spend as much time and energy debating the thorny issues of what exactly AS/Autism is, "where" it is, ( genes, epi-genetic, hormones, environment, etc ), and examining the proofs of its existence, etc, as religious thinkers used to on the proving that "god" existed, and how many angels you could fit on the head of a pin.

People try to persuade believers in other gods/identities that their own is the most important, the most over-arching/"powerful", ( power to explain everything; effect on people, etc ), and have a tendency to attribute absolutely everything in their own life, and other's lives, even the world, to the one "god".

Some, eg. aspie supremacists/radical lesbian feminists, etc, also see themselves as "the chosen people", and NTs/men as the heathen.

Is this just a replay of ancient tribal religions, involving the same old attachments and conflicts ( but distributed differently ), or is it a new process, as a result of which our attitudes towards/our belief in "identity" will undergo interesting changes/revolutions? Are we still trying to work out the same issues about "ourselves", ( just using different language ), or is this something new?
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Last edited by ouinon on 22 May 2009, 12:52 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Er, how so?

How so what exactly? I'm sorry but I don't understand your question.
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Ahh! I think I see what you mean.

I meant that although many people might not believe in the objective reality of the identity/"god", ( eg. AS/Autism ), some of the people who don't believe in it will nevertheless remain attached/loyal to the group because, for example, they admire/enjoy/appreciate something about the people who have chosen that particular "god"/identity, ( whereas others on the other hand may not want to stay with the group, and go off in search of a "better" god/identity, or not join a group of such worshippers at all ).

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Is there some kind of "progress" in identifying with groups/gods/symbols/labels based on sex, gender, race, sexuality, and ability, ( for example ), rather than with groups/gods/symbols/labels based on geographical location, or blood ties/clan/tribe?

Who here identifies with one of the above, ( sex, gender, race, sexuality, ability ), for example? Who finds that their belief in such and such an "identity" makes sense of their life?

Who here has identified passionately or wholeheartedly with a particular identity "label" at some time in their life?

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I somewhat agree with your analysis of the political situation. People do basically use these alignments for a social/psychological/religious purpose I think, in that the other side is evil, their side is good, and sometimes it is worth dying for the cause. I think for most people, the love of politics submits to a civic religion(love of country/fellow man) or a higher moral(love of liberty/equality/etc)

Thinking about what might be described as a "buddhist" kind of belief in identity as god. Apparently buddhism, although not ultimately theist, accepts, even encourages, belief in gods "along the way", as both psychological support and also as an aid to learning, part of the "material" which can use to work on belief systems etc.

So periods of identifying with a group/label can be learning experiences.

But it made me think of how the Ten Commandments include an injunction to "take no other gods", and it suddenly occurred to me that this could actually apply to words/labels with which identify and from which get support etc, as if were gods, being symbols in which one trusts/has faith, and which lean on, experience as blessing/benediction of self.

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Wow! ( Looking at poll ). Noone, apart from me, has either identified with a label/group during their life, nor not identified with a label/group. Bizarre!

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Aside from a few intensely aligned individuals here, in general this site seems to be populated mostly by individualists. Perhaps that's as a result of being AS. I don't identify well with humans in general. I find their general behavior shallow, brutal and mostly mindless. I don't know how general that might be but this is the site where this attitude might be common.

In that case why has noone voted for "Never identified with a label/group", or at least "Other", and described this general freedom from identification with a label/group in the thread?

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