WEDNESDAY, 4 AUGUST 2004
If you did not have to appear, you would not need much of a so-called identity. Or maybe I should say the way you would think about yourself if you did not need to appear would not have required the approval of the community – meaning in everyday face-to-face appearances.
Identity that is recognised and to a degree approved by the community is therefore primarily required for APPEARANCE. Considering this relationship between identity and appearance at specific time and place, what would be the value of not appearing?
[Note on 10 August 2007: Identity is primarily needed for appearance? I am sitting alone behind my computer, and I need to know who I am at this very moment.]
[Note on 23 May 2012: I am alone behind my computer and I know who I am. Why? Because I appear to people on a daily basis, and between appearances I sit down behind the computer … where I can’t turn off a button to something that flickers who I am. Plus, perhaps the work I do, like this writing, requires that I have identity. Why? Because what I write is representative of me, and will be absolutely meaningless if “I” don’t appear to the reader as a person-with-identity. The reader won’t be able to identify with what I write, and as a result won’t take anything I write seriously. So, even though I am alone at the present moment, I still need identity because I remember who I was during my most recent appearance, and I need to have identity in case I have to appear at short notice – like if someone suddenly knocks on the door. And even when you are alone, you may be doing work that requires identity.]
_______________________