Whatever happened to ‘we’?

Our society has been dismembered, and we now live in a world where every man is an island, identifying only with himself and foregoing all ideas of himself being part of a ‘we’.

In the modern world, identity has fallen away. It has been fundamentally altered. We have all been tricked and have fallen into a trap set for us by the greedy and the opportunistic. Increasingly we have become convinced that identity is not about what you are, but instead what you are willing to buy.

We are at all times accosted by door-to-door salesmen in the business of selling identities. Left with no identity at all, many buy in.

Our society has been dismembered, and we now live in a world where every man is an island, identifying only with himself and foregoing all ideas of himself being part of a ‘we’.

Nowadays, we are given a blank slate at birth and told to go work it out ourselves. With no idea of who we are or where we came from, it is no wonder that so many are lost and rootless and left seemingly with no option but to buy into a transient and shallow identity based on their favourite band or what phone they use.

No longer do we identify ourselves by what we are, but instead by what we choose to consume. We make aspects of our tastes all consuming; we make ‘us’ and ignore the complicated and intrinsic part of us that is always there, the animus or the fundamental that is what we are.

For too long have we pretended that we go to build a bear and make a coherent identity ourselves. For too long have we pretended that extreme individualism would not tear apart the very roots of our society.

No matter what is said or what is done, or what we pretend we are, always remember that no man is an island, and that it is always better to have a common identity that binds people together then to split ourselves so drastically apart in the name of selfish individualism.