Identity

What I’m gonna say soon will be quite outrageous to some people. Please don’t get upset about it, because its just an opinion, just what I feel. Its not meant to be a personal thing to some people, and I’m not saying that you are wrong. Don’t take what comes next as the pure truth because its very opiated and biased. This is just what I feel.

Prepare for controversy.

I don’t like the NDP songs. At all. They are way, way, way too nationalistic. Corny lyrics and tacky soundtracks also. I won’t label it as propaganda, because that would be a very extremist way of looking at things, but I think you’ll get what I mean.

I find it sad that people resort to these kind of things to evoke patriotism.

I don’t think that’s right. Patriotism should come naturally from the heart. It doesn’t come from signing songs written around a glorified impression of the subject matter. It should be about the things we do to make our world a better place. Things like social or political activism, being an advocate for something like climate change.

Its disappointing that people need cheesy songs and government marketing campaigns to tell them that. Shouldn’t we already know what we need to do to make a positive difference? Do we have to be told how, by lovely advertisements and marketing campaigns?

Why is it we have to be reminded how to be proud of our country? Take a leaf out of Japan’s book. I still remember there was this shopkeeper, who upon seeing a dead leaf fall from a tree onto the pavement of a neighboring shop, promptly went over to put it in the dustbin. The people there are so polite to each other. They are concerned about stuff that extends beyond the individual.

They don’t need all these tacky songs to give them a sense of ownership of their country.

They have a very strong sense of cultural identity, an identity that is really theirs truly, something that is honestly collected together, and is genuine. Their identity is not the result of pretty speeches on the need to “forge a national identity”. Its the result of what the people did themselves.

Something spontaneous.

No point having an identity if its been carefully engineered by marketing agencies. That’s just deceiving oneself.

Besides, I think the notion of “forging an identity” is incorrect in itself. How can one manufacture your identity? Your are who you are, and nothing that you can ever do is going to change that fact. You cannot escape your true identity.

Your identity is not made. It is not created. It is not forged.

It is discovered.

All this fuss about forging an identity has distracted us from the more meaningful purpose of discovering what our true identity is. What is the point of an identity that doesn’t reflect who we are?

Maybe its time that we discard the notion of “tolerating” different races too. That is erroneous too. We should not be tolerating differences. We should be accepting them and welcoming them with open arms. Our differences are what makes us a more powerful people. Our diversity is priceless human capital.

To talk as if our differences were a problem is stupidity in its purest form.

Because its our differences that are the solution.

Its time for us to forget about engineering our identity. Its time for us to start finding and discovering it. The little things we see, hear, smell, touch, feel everyday, our slangs, way of doing things, our people, our differences, are our identity. Our identity is already all around us, its already part of us.

All we need to do, is to open our eyes and see.