WRITTEN ON June 18th, 2006 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Uncategorized

Has anyone read this book Identity and Violence by Amartya Sen? One review said

Nobel Prize–winning economist Sen deplores the “little boxes” that divide us in this high-minded but seldom penetrating brief against identity politics. Sen observes that ideologies of hate typically slot people into communities based on a single dimension that trumps the multifaceted affinities of class, sex, politics and personal interest that make up individual identities. This “reductionist” us-versus-them outlook is not limited to jihadists, he argues, but is a widespread intellectual tendency seen in Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” paradigm, in postcolonial critiques of democracy and rationalism as “Western” ideals, as well as in efforts to “dialogue” with moderate Muslims.

(Publishers Weekly) and another (Washington Post) says Sen argues that

“the same person can be, without any contradiction, an American citizen, of Caribbean origin, with African ancestry, a Christian, a liberal, a woman, a vegetarian, a long-distance runner, a historian, a schoolteacher, a novelist, a feminist, a heterosexual, a believer in gay and lesbian rights, a theater lover, an environmental activist, a tennis fan, a jazz musician,” etc. One’s civilizational identity is not one’s destiny, Sen observes, and civilizational “partitioning” — seeing the planet culture by culture — does not capture the messiness of the world. This Earth of ours, he says, is made more “flammable” by warring definitions of human identity, rather than an embrace of the many different facets that make us human.

Nationality can get pretty complex: my neighbour is a Scot of Lithuanian parents worked in Spain with the French team competing in the Americas cup. Our religious affiliations may change, our sexuality, ocupation and marital status. Many aspects of us evolve and so does how much we want to reveal about ourselves to different parties. Best rule with stodgy old government is to keep disclosure minimal at all times I’d have thought. I mean, why tell Gordon Brown anything more than you have to? What good can come of being CRMed by people like John Prescott, Peter Hain or your local councillors?