3 minute read
When a person is experiencing a tremendous sense of disorientation about their whole life–who they are, what they’re about, where they’re headed, and how they relate to others–we say they’re having an identity crisis. That’s our modern psychological construct for that uncomfortable, unstable experience. To go meta with this idea, it’s almost like our cultural understanding of identity formation is itself having an identity crisis. Little is known, there’s great disorientation, and seemingly everything is up for grabs. Identity itself is undergoing a radical transformation.
In the old cultural schema, identity was indisputably external. Who you were was understood firstly in terms of God’s proclamations and secondarily by your clan or family of origin, marital status, children, religious community, nationality, occupation, sex, class, and so forth.1 Yet in post-WWII expressive individualism the truest self is found inwardly. It’s based upon feelings, personality, gender, sexual orientation, ideology, hobbies, fandoms, custom spirituality, etc.2 External roles, associations, and facts are secondary. God’s perspective is altogether irrelevant.
In the present zeitgeist, the central operating principle is authentic, autonomous individualism. It’s the foremost unquestionable presupposition, and the tangible expressions only keep getting more extreme with greater excesses. The most recent example I’ve learned about is the sovereign citizen movement.3 I’ve even run across numerous people who loathe The Lumineers because of their “oppressive” lyrics with “I belong with you, you belong with me | You’re my sweetheart.” In this worldview, any social obligation is tyrannical and all association must be fully voluntary.
Time for some push-back from a Jesus-centered perspective. First, facts and feelings both matter. Second, community is good.4 Third, core identity obviously and unavoidably has both internal and external dynamics. Fourth, there should be an ever-present tension between individual rights and the common good.5 Fifth, it’d be helpful to distinguish between the multifaceted nature of lower-case “i” identities that are the sum total of your influences and an upper-case “I” Identity for one’s core, ultimate Identity. Sixth, God’s perspective isn’t irrelevant. It has the utmost value.
The originals beatniks were deeply and unfortunately misguided in how far they took authentic, autonomous individualism.6 As for beatnik Christianity, I posit that political individualism is most always virtuous and authenticity is good when it’s not idolatrously prioritized as the highest value, but radical autonomy is crap. Jesus followers cannot be autonomous. If you follow Him, then you’re a part of the covenant community. Your eternal citizenship is in the Kingdom of God, your ultimate allegiance is to your benevolent King, and you belong to your loving Creator.7
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It was all about how a person related to others in the world. Here are some other examples to continue the list: friends, ethnicity, state/city/neighborhood, political affiliation, alumni networks, fraternal organizations, military service, academic degrees, skills, and abilities.↩
As Shakespeare put it, “To thine own self be true.”↩
These guys believe individuals citizens may determine which laws do and don’t apply to themselves.↩
Absolutized individualism is a vice. The aspiration to complete autonomy is fundamentally unhealthy. It goes against our social natures as homo sapiens as has devastating impacts upon physical and mental health. By the way, Ayn Rand was a faux-thinking moron whose appeals to absolute selfishness only dupes those who are self-centered assholes.↩
Self-interest and the well-being of the community should always be balanced. I don’t even believe in absolute bodily autonomy. There are reasonable exceptions and limitations. Those who fail to grasp this detest the field of public health, but, I’m sorry, they’re just plain ignorant about how communicable diseases, viruses, and bacteria work in the real world. The world is deeply interconnected. We’re not islands of our own sovereign existence.↩
This is the strongest critique of the Beat Generation I’ll have in this whole series. I can understood and even appreciate what drove them in this direction, but, in my opinion, they went way too far. This was a classic case of out of the frying pan into the fire.↩
To be a Christian is to get a core Identity transplant.↩
