Are We Actually?
“Men aren’t equal in many ways.”
No, this isn’t what Thomas Jefferson wrote in the US Declaration of Independence. This is what US Political Scientist Francis Fukuyama said today during his talk at The Bristol Festival of Ideas.
Pioneer of the neo-conservatism movement and author of the best-selling novel, The End of History and the Last of Man, his confident opinions and scarily-accurate predictions about the state of global politics have never shied away from controversy. Fukuyama’s talk, “Identity Politics and the Struggle for Recognition”, was no exception to this trend.
I came to Fukuyama’s talk 10 minutes early and was not surprised to see that Wills Memorial’s Great Hall was already chock-full. I could tell the audience was excited to hear his take on the events of the last few weeks. Between Stormy Daniels, The Kavanagh hearings and Kanye West’s mysterious visit to the oval office, Fukuyama had a large pool of topics to choose from. But how exactly did he tie these kinds of events to identity politics?
“Identity should be based on ideas and values, not on terms of a faction.”
Fukuyama stresses that our polarized political climate stems from our false sense of political identity. We no longer shape our self through feeling but through affiliation – abiding by the terms dictated by our society. Our identity is cultivated with one goal in mind – to be recognized as a social group, not individuals.
The American People. Women. Black Minority Ethnic. These categories lock people into political chasms and imply a rigid categorization of peoples. This rhetoric does not create a broad community, it divides it. By suggesting one ought to feel a certain way because they belong to a subset of society promulgates harmful stereotypes and misconceptions and silences one’s “inner identity.”
Fukuyama suggests that this inner identity is what challenges the status quo of our environment. It is what drives marginalized ethnic groups to i) voice their struggle, ii) earn respect and iii) challenge their “pre-set” outer identity. Without challenge, there is no need for change. Without this need for change, there is no identity.
However, Fukuyama also warns us that this inner identity can sometimes be used to the advantage of others. For instance, Trump’s appeal lays in his self-personification as the saviour of a “victimized white identity.” More recently, we can also think of a surprising response to the #MeToo movement suggesting 2018 was a “dangerous year” for innocent, victimized men.
Fukuyama reminds us that our identity cannot be boiled down to our economic background and our social group. Our identity is our responses to the challenges we experience living as our economic background and our social group. Our identity exists in tandem with our environment and our position in society. Our collective identity is shaped by our experience as a group and our own quest for respect and recognition. “Men aren’t equal.” Reading this statement now, I can’t help but agree with Fukuyama. We cannot deny the economic and social disparities which stem from our cultural hegemony. We cannot turn a blind eye to the uneven playing field of our society. We cannot ignore the struggles of our social identity. The world as it is is not equal. So why should we pretend it is?