Buying Our Identity - Part 4

Here is the last installment from David Burns about how many individuals are looking to the marketplace for their identities. Here he explores whether freedom of choice is really freedom at all.

In the past, when identity was primarily conferred through external channels, most individuals found themselves greatly constrained in the extent to which they were in control over their identities. This scenario forms the basis of several movies based in small, rural towns where young adults are lured by the prospects of the big city where they can "find themselves," "prove themselves," or "be their own persons": in other words, where they can possess increased control over their identities. Yet, is the ability to construct one's self through one's own choices a freeing experience as it is commonly depicted? Some argue no. [Some], for instance, suggest that the contemporary self, based on choice and consumption, remains empty. Indeed, basing the self on consumption appears to be more enslaving than basing it on traditional means.

The ability to construct oneself...involves a significant amount of personal responsibility -- one must be adept at self-construction. A suboptimal choice can have potentially devastating effects on one's self, particularly "as consumer culture also speeds up and dislocates, through the fashion system, planned obsolescence and so on, any sense of what a 'right choice' might be today as opposed to last week or next week."

In the end, the self itself becomes a salable commodity. It is produced in the marketplace, and it is sold in the marketplace as a means to intimate relationships, social standings, jobs, or a career. Consequently, "In the rush of modern industrial society, and in the attempt to maintain our image as successful persons, we feel that we have lost touch with a deeper, more profound part of our beings. Yet, we feel that we have little time, energy, or cultural support to pursue those areas of life that we know are important."

I know I spent a lot of time on this, but, obviously, I think it is important to consider. As covenantal people, we are bound to God and one another and that covenant does - and has the right - to form us. We are no longer slaves to anything but Christ who is conforming us into his image (Romans 8:29). If we want to know who we are, we shouldn't look to the marketplace for that answer, but to our Father:

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him. (Romans 8:14-17)

May God's peace be with you.