0.1.4 Why bother? We care about identity!

Version 1.0 September 2016                                        Previous Version

●   The world is still living through the post-colonial period.  The first wave of European colonialism began in the 1600s with Spain and Portugal invading the Americas.  The second occurred in the 1800s as other Europeans and the USA colonised Africa and Asia.  The third came in the 1920s after World War I as the British and French occupied the Middle East after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Germany lost its colonies, and newly Communist Russia incorporated northern and central Eurasia into the Soviet Union.

●   Most of the Americas gained independence in the late 1700s and the 1800s.  The remaining colonies mostly gained independence after World War II (which ended in 1945).  The Dutch and French fought viciously against independence in Indonesia, Algeria and Vietnam.  In the 1960s the Americans took over from the French in Vietnam.  China was never actually colonised but suffered European interference until the Communist victory in 1949.  The Soviet Union broke up in the 1980s.  Majority rule in all of Africa was not achieved until the 1990s.

●   Europeans moved to the colonies, overtaking the indigenous peoples in North America and Australasia, blending with the locals in Central and South America, keeping separate in Africa and Asia, but many fled after each of the World Wars.  Colonials went, and still go, to Western countries for education, and to escape the wars, poverty and oppression in the homelands.  Worldwide rural people are moving to the bigger cities.  Most of us are looking for a better life.

●   Previously, each region had been occupied by people who had been there for many hundreds of years, with the same language, religion and culture.  These mass migrations brought together people who were and are different, without these unifying forces.  Some countries and groups integrated more easily than others.  But there remains a lot of conflict between ethnic and religious groups.  Many locals, such as the poorer and less educated whites in Europe, Hindus in India, and indigenous Malaysians and Fijians feel threatened by the relative newcomers.

●   Conflicts between groups emphasise difference.  People whose religion was incidental to their sense of self become more aware – that they are Hindu, Buddhist, Christian or Muslim.  Men feel threatened by feminism.  There has always been racism and class conflicts, between the rich or educated elites and the rest.  Differences often correlate with ethnicity and often last over generations, and then often perceived to be due to religious or ethnic discrimination.

●   Poverty, poor schools, unemployment and despair frequently lead to drug use, family violence and antisocial behaviour – in many British white Christians, French black Muslims, Indian brown Hindus, and Australian Aboriginals.  This behaviour provokes more aggressive responses from police and the rest of the community, reinforcing the differences on both sides.

●   Many people identity themselves now primarily by their religion or ethnicity.  Many also, often unconsciously, define themselves by gender or sexual preference.  People unthinkingly adopt the roles and values they feel are consistent with their perceived identity.  Australian criminals dress up and act like American gangers from the 1920s. Knowing your role in life provides the culture and background that informs your behaviour: it provides meaning.

●   Too much of our identity is consequently based on our generally inadequate understanding of history, our local perspective and the parochial views of our family and community.  We devise specific explanations for why others seem to oppress us, when a wider understanding could explain the situation so differently that we would change our reactions.

We all need a better understanding of history, to disabuse us of notions that some ethnic groups are intellectually or morally superior or inferior, to minimise our sense of victimhood or collective guilt, and to enable us to find our identity in our shared humanity.  On the other hand our sense of identity is inevitably related to our gender, age, roles and origins.