Our Identity Determines Where We Belong

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“Our identity determines where we belong”

Today, we explore the relationship between our identity and where we belong. Identity. What is it? Is it how other people describe us, how we answer, “Who are you?” or how we perceive ourselves. Either way, as members of the human race in general, we strongly desire to belong in one way or another. We belong to many groups during the course of a lifetime, some subtler than others. Gender, race and family are all examples of groups that one typically belongs to. However, our interests, morals and beliefs determine some other groups to which we belong. Therefore, is it our identity that determines where we belong, or where we belong that determines our identity? It cannot simply be categorized into one or another, but both theories are correct in different scenarios. We will explore this in depth. In order to belong to certain groups, we compromise our true identity, and therefore it is where we belong that determines our identity. To abide by the unwritten guidelines set by society, and more specifically that specific group we alter our personality. Our morals and beliefs are unquestionably put to the test as we “belong” to particular groups. ‘Peer pressure’ as well as ‘group or mob mentality’ are two phrases that come to mind when studying this theory. We act in ways that are outside our norm, all because our identity is modified. To put things into perspective, take for example a soldier invading another country. He may receive orders to commit lawful or even unlawful acts of an abominable nature, yet he follows through with the order. Even though the acts may be within the law, they may fall against his “laws” or beliefs, he continued in fear of not belonging. Thus it can be deduced that in some cases, it is where we belong that determines our identity. On the contrary, our identity also determines where we belong. Of the many groups we belong to, some of them are inevitably dictated by our identity. Gender and...
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