Group Identity

For the past few months, something has really been preoccupying my mind, and it is something that I have tried to consider outside of myself, but found it to be impossible. Cutting down the cryptic nature of my words, what I mean is: I have been wondering how belonging to a group makes people go mad with loyalty, and how much being a part of that group will make them not be true to their own sense of reason or thoughts? My brother Marc (Who is a cognitive scientist) once described something that I thought was pretty intriguing: he told me of a study where some kids who went to a camp were randomly put into one of two groups, a red group, and a blue group. There was nothing inherent about any kid being placed into one group or the other, but what happened over the course of some time, is that the kids became patriotic to their groups, they became so proud of the group they were in that they would call the other group bad names, and things like that. Even after they dissolved these groups, these kids maintained their mentalities and identities with their original groups and would continue to dislike members of the other group.

This is something that is not unique to them, and it is something that I have been trying to use in my daily life, but with little success. What I mean, is that I find myself unable to break away from this ridiculous identity to certain groups, even if reason or logic dictates that I should do this. For example, I would call myself each of the following of these things at one point or another in my life, now some of these things may be contradictions to each other, but all the same I would call myself it at one time or another. I am a: Roman Catholic, agnostic, deist, republican, imperialist, materialist, evolutionist, Coloradoan, Denverite, Thorntonian, Broomfielder, male, white, British, German, , American, anglophile, vexillophiliac, linguist, intellectual, nerd, elitist. I am sure I am missing a whole slew of other titles that I have deemed myself at one point, but I have found that though I may have been born into some of these things, I remain them, out of loyalty to the title, and not to the actual ideals and merits of the dogmas that each one has itself. I know that I would never be an archetypal member of any of these, and there are always certain things I disagree with, or do not really follow fully with any of them.

What makes me think of this you may ask? Well the election coming up. This has caught my attention in two ways lately. Last night, I went to a College Republican meeting, and though I enjoyed hanging out with them, to me it was more belonging to them as a group than actually being conservative. I am not saying I am not very conservative, but if you look at me, and my beliefs, you will see that I am certainly not the stereotypical conservative I should be. For example, I have a deep resentment of Israel, and think that the Zionist movement never should have succeeded in making it. Also, I am okay with gun control, and am growing increasingly tolerant of abortion. I am more or less okay with the concept of socialised medicine, but remain skeptical of it. I would not be opposed to legalised prostitution, and to some degree drugs. I detest obnoxiously large vehicles and fully support alternative energy sources. This is how I feel logically about things mind you. But when I see or hear people spouting off things that I feel oppose 'my side' ie the republican side, I grow very angry with them, and no matter if I have total agreement with them or not, I feel like they are my opponent.

The thing that I constantly remind myself of is that they are feeling as illogically loyal to their side as I am to mine. I am not saying we do not have reasons for siding with the things that we do,but I believe that they are seldom worth the effort or care that we give to them. For example, I used to be vehemently opposed to abortion believing it to be completely evil. The truth of the matter is, I am sure I know several people who have had them, and I would never know about it, it really does not affect me. If you want a more abstract example think of the death penalty, I mean, Colorado has an execution once every couple of decades or so, and chances are, we would barely know anyone involved. It is nothing really that truly concerns us, except in our knowing about it. Therefore it is barely worth getting upset about.

In this way, I want to divorce myself from all group connection I have at all times, and consider things based purely by my own axioms and by the merit of being me, not being a linguist, or Boulderite or whatever else. Groups have a place for us, but I think we become way too impassioned about them. It is like those who hate Bush, though they may have a basis for doing so, it is my experience that many people just exaggerate him as some sort of villain and no matter how much good he could ever do, he would never redeem himself in their eyes. This is true for many politicians, but I do not want to be a part of that anymore. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I would absolutely love to hear them, or any advice on how to divorce myself from this nonsense?