Exploring Identity
Temporal and Cosmic
While making my point about interest alignment in my last post, I mentioned in passing that interests are a function of identity. My old buddy Doctor Hammer honed in on this rightly noting that I didn’t define identity, and rather expected my readers to intuit the highly particularized meaning I’ve assigned to this term to make it simultaneously useful and grounded in reality. The thing is, there isn’t just one term that can satisfy both of these conditions by itself. The common understanding of identity is that it is a postmodern “social construct” making it useful, but ultimately untethered from objective reality secondary to the infinite regression inherent to that approach.1 This creates a powerful temptation to reach for an objective definition of identity, but this disregards its inherently subjective and highly context-sensitive nature. The solution then is two distinct but inter-related terms that describe these disparate but distinct aspects of identity.
Temporal Identity
Temporal identity is the postmodern social construct referencing the fundamental nature of a thing. Any language that attempts to describe such, symbolic or otherwise, can be thought of as a temporal identity. Such narratives can be reflective of genuine perceptions or the product of deliberate lies infused with enmity and qualify equally as temporal identities. That is to say the providence of any such language is immaterial so long as it describes the fundamental nature of a thing.2 The reason for the “temporal” qualifier is to signify that this identity is bound by a constrained context in time. While it is tempting to immediately start trying to evaluate the validity or accuracy of a given temporal identity, this can’t be done in isolation. Because of the outsized subjective component and the recursive nature of perception between humans in a social setting, any temporal identity is an ephemeral abstraction only tenuously connected to ultimate reality. Exactly how it is connected is via its companion term.
Cosmic Identity
Cosmic identity is the fundamental nature of a thing given ultimate context. Where temporal identity is bound to a given time and context, cosmic identity exists outside of time. Given our limited ability to understand reality outside of a linear framework, the “outside of time” can be equated to “the end of time.” Since temporal identities are integrated into ultimate context via their powerful influence on behavior, then they are necessarily part of cosmic identity. If you believe in free will up to and including soft determinism, temporal identity can be thought of as exerting influence upon cosmic identity via its impact on behavior. Whatever your philosophical and religious priors, the relationship between temporal and cosmic identity is what describes the extent to which a given temporal identity is true, accurate, and/or sound. Of course any description of this relationship we make is inherently speculative, because we don’t live outside of time and don’t have access to ultimate context, but a definitive relationship exists nonetheless.3
Aligning Temporal and Cosmic Identity
In Words as Forcefields, Neoliberal Feudalism conveys how re-sacralizing language and pursuing individuation is the path forward. I agree and believe this can also be understood as a grand project of aligning temporal and cosmic identity. Individuation reveals your individual aspirational cosmic identity while the re-sacralization of language allows the relationship between these concepts to be better understood to align cosmic interests4 and facilitate cooperation in pursuit thereof. Without pursuing individuation we’re easily enslaved by temporal identities oriented towards serving the interests of the symbol and language manipulating elite. If we fail to take action, our cosmic identities will be those of eternal victims and/or traitors to our cosmic interests. For those of us who believe in free will, the dual approach of pursuing individuation and the re-sacralization of language provides hope that we can have a hand in avoiding such a dark fate, and implies an obligation to try, no matter how painful it may be.
The idea infinite regression in postmodernism refers to the problem of endless skepticism and deconstruction inherent in its approach to truth, meaning, and knowledge. Postmodernism, broadly characterized by skepticism toward grand narratives, universal truths, and stable meanings, often relies on deconstructing texts, ideas, or systems to reveal their constructed, contingent nature. However, this process can lead to an infinite regress, a situation where no foundational truth or meaning can ever be established because every claim is subject to further questioning, relativism, or deconstruction.
The things I’m interested in describing here are mainly individuals and human groups, but this framework can also be applied to other things from pit bulls to igneous rocks. I mention this only to highlight that there may be other applications for this approach combining the useful aspects of postmodernism with an objective grounding. I think a fundamental understanding of this relationship is common, but I don’t see it articulated often. Tree of Woe’s Dietary Theory of Morality comes to mind as an application of subjective-objective synthesis.
The reason I brought up determinism before has more to do with this point. For those who aren’t determinists of any variety and/or don’t believe in an omniscient God, there can be a valid contention that the relationship between temporal and cosmic identity only becomes definitive once all outcomes are determined. For everyone else the relationship between any temporal identity and cosmic identity is definitive, even if it is ultimately unknowable.
Just as I asserted interests are a function of identity previously, I assert here that cosmic interests are correspondingly a function of cosmic identity.
I've taken some time before responding here as I've been working like crazy the past week and didn't have the capacity to really focus on this as it deserves. Here are my thoughts:
1: Temporal Identity is still very weakly defined. That isn't all your fault, as the general use of identity is very poorly defined, but it does mean that it will not bear any analytical weight. You use it to say things like identity defines interests, but do not go into what defines identity and what doesn't. For example, former President Biden had said that blacks who did not vote for him were not black. (Or something to that effect.) Is that a coherent sentence? If we assume that identity drives interests, and black is an identity, then it is at least a coherent statement to say "All people whose identity is black have an interest in voting for Biden, thus if you do not vote for Biden you must not have a black identity." Coherent, but obviously stupid, so the contradiction must be in the use of identity. However, it isn't clear why given your definition.
2: Do interests define identity, or does identity define interests?
3: You seem to be waffling again between cosmic identity being fixed and cosmic identity being variable over time. That seems like a very important question to have a fixed answer to.
4: What does "the extent to which a given temporal identity is true, accurate, and/or sound" mean, and how does one tell if a temporal identity is true, accurate or sound? How is this being judged, on what aspects?
I think perhaps your description might benefit from some concrete examples of just what you have in mind as "identities" are and what they are not. Especially as it moves to the group level these are critical because your arguments are putting a huge amount of weight on something largely undefined. You aren't alone in that mistake, the Leftist identitarians do exactly the same thing, but that isn't really a good move to emulate; they are wrong about just about everything.
Intereatingly, this seems to echo the mystical kabbalistic "structure" of the soul. With the "temporal identity" correspponding to the lower levels of the soul as it manifests itself in this material world; while the "cosmic identity" corresponds to the higher levels of the soul, and eventually its connection with its Source.
Alternatively, I am just trying to decypher your meaning in terms which are more familiar to me.