What Is Identity?

What Is Identity? In an increasingly globalised world, talking about identity has become rather complex. It is as though, today, we are becoming more attached to multiple definitions of an identity which, at the same time, is supposed to represent a single, defining characteristic: the SELF.

The ego has perhaps become the dominant form of identity. It is no longer about shared origins or a sense of belonging, but about being different individuals who create a sense of belonging tailored to their own needs, something that satisfies their feeling of disorientation. Suddenly, we are all special, all-powerful and influential beings. But is that really what it is about? Or are we once again looking to blame migration for having confused our sense of «identity»?

Why do we constantly talk about «culture», about a «culture» we no longer even live by? And so we observe the culture of the newcomer and begin to realise what we ourselves have lost, having replaced it with the ruthless consumption of material goods and even «immaterial» ones, such as all the drugs that allow us to sustain that illusory sense of «identity» we may never have had in the first place.

Identity can be explained in a thousand different ways, because it does not mean the same thing to everyone and is, at the same time, constantly evolving.

We remain recognisable over time, but we are not necessarily the same people we were ten years ago. Encounters, experiences, knowledge and even crises can change the way we perceive ourselves.

We may associate identity with a name, nationality, origins, gender or cultural belonging, but it is something far deeper. It concerns our very existence in a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected. Unfamiliar transformations are frightening, and this is why we feel threatened when a new identity enters our system. And this is happening precisely at a time when we are all increasingly intertwined, belonging to different cultures and origins. How do we decide who we are in a world that is increasingly turning back towards nationalism and an identity we cannot even define?

The younger generations are a blend of ethnicities and cultures, and they will have identities of their own. But isn't human nature itself a continuous process of evolution? And why do we try to stop this evolution, putting the brakes on it, when we will not even be here tomorrow?

These are questions worth asking in a world that seeks to protect its own garden by uprooting everything that does not conform to its idea of interior design, as though anything different might compromise the stability on which it relies.

Yet everything is hanging in the balance, and differences are being used as weapons to build new power structures that exploit our sense of identity. This is the real war: it targets our disorientation and fills the void with a new sense of certainty — the certainty of belonging.

It does not matter what we belong to; all that matters is being part of something. It is precisely this need for belonging that propaganda and the manipulation of public opinion are built upon. Fears are fuelled, enemies are identified, complex realities are reduced to simplistic narratives, and differences are turned into divisions. Through increasingly polarised communication, even dissent becomes something to be fought, while identity becomes an instrument of collective mobilisation.

Are we not witnessing a form of social conditioning, in which we are gradually being trained to see the other as a threat rather than an opportunity for dialogue? A subtler, yet equally violent, kind of warfare that does not necessarily need weapons to eradicate differences: it only needs to convince us that they cannot coexist.

Because every power struggle reshuffles the cards before the game even begins.