There’s a fundamental difference between one whose identity exists as a formation against something, and one whose identity exists as an overflowing expression of something.

What seems stereotypical of most present political movements is that they are iterations of the first. Their identity forms in juxtaposition to another identity, and so they begin in a kind of struggle for recognition and legitimacy. They are always begging for their voices to be heard, their cause to be validated. They seek adherents because, without collective agglomeration of more bodies and minds to ‘their side’, that side wavers precariously and seems always ready to fall back into non-existence. Put more strenuously, such identities form against whatever is deemed Evil, Unjust, Cruel, Unequal, and so on. Much attentive critique is poured upon the enemies and evil-doers. The positive program, if there is one, largely comes in the form of “We reject that, we do not want to be that.” This tends to blind it to many dubious aspects of its own self and, at worst, gives it an incentive to overlook unfavorable facts (like, for example, any goodness, reason, or redeeming quality in the ‘evil’ other). At that point, identity is quickly becoming an ideology and, moreover, a pawn in the mediastic game.

The second form of identity is on a much surer, yes truer ground. Not being dependent on any ‘contradistinction’ to another, it is able to let itself go, forget itself, laugh at itself, spend itself out. It knows silence, solitude, and the long wait of time, the long abidance in pregnant and total invisibility. It says, “We are this, we want to be this”—not to negate something bad or undesirable but to express (exuberate!) a desirable. It may be wrong about what it is and wants, but still it is not formed in the mirror of hatred, blame, resentment, grievance, animosity and revenge. No doubt it will have foes and may experience these sentiments; it may even vent its excess energy on opponents. But, at the core, its freedom or joy (in the act of love they are identical) is axiomatic and un-self-consciously powerful—it reigns. This power is not won from another or posited abstractly but is inherent to the very self-motivation and discipline of its being—it is known, a secure possession of self, a following that cannot be deterred. It leads itself, and knows how and who alone to obey…… And so, in reality, it has no ‘enemies’; to credence them so, to pay attention to them, is even a kind of generosity. There is no “Evil” here at all—rather only the “Good” of the self-flowing and -overflowing movement whose first and only order of business is to be and become itself, by continually overcoming itself, by conserving itself and giving itself away, without needing to return upon itself or project itself into some future accomplishment, for indeed: in its very identity it has already grasped the richness and splendor of its future wholeness, of its ripened composure, of its perfect success.—This means, very simply: it has itself…

—May 12, 2024