Identity Necessary for Survival

Campus Report ^ | June 9, 2008 | Melinda Zosh

[bs9021]

Identity Necessary for Survival

by: Melinda Zosh, June 09, 2008

Americans are fighting the war on terror with technology and weapons, but one man says Americans are lacking the strongest, most effective weapon—identity.

Natan Sharansky, author of Defending Identity and the New York Times best-seller The Case for Democracy, spoke about the importance of attaining a sense of identity in a democratic society at the Heritage Foundation on June 3.

“Identity, a life of commitment, is essential because it satisfies a human longing to become part of something bigger than oneself,” Sharanksy wrote in his book Defending Identity.

Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident, prisoner and recipient of America’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006, said that some people around the world, including terrorists, are willing to die to sustain their identities and backgrounds.

“There are things that are more important than immediate physical existence; there are things which are more meaningful,” said Sharansky, who served as minister and deputy prime minister on the Israeli cabinet.

Without a clear sense of identity, freedom is not guaranteed, Sharansky argued. “…Without commitment and without energy, which your identity is giving to you, you won’t be able to fight for freedom,” said Sharansky.

Terrorists have a defined purpose, because their identities are defined, and identity is crucial for success, according to Sharansky.

“The enemy’s will is strong because his identity is strong,” wrote Sharansky in his book. “Not only are strong identities vitally important to individuals who hope to lead a life of purpose, they are essential for the ability of a democratic nation to defend its cherished freedoms.”

And defending “cherished freedoms” means understanding that a sense of identity is positive and crucial in today’s multi-cultural world, said Sharansky...

[sean_og]

Is that what “Diversity” is trying to break up?

[Luke21]

Natan Sharansky was a lonely voice against authoritarianism during the Cold War. I used to read his books as a kid. I always considered him up there with Solzhenitsyn and Koestler among anti-Soviet authors.

[xtinct]

Identity, a life of commitment, is essential because it satisfies a human longing to become part of something bigger than oneself.

Must be what the liberals are striving for when they flip and flop like flounders on a boat deck from one * good * cause to another.

The big problem I see is a lack of self-esteem in most liberals. This must be caused by their early elementary school educations where * competition * is taboo and participation awards are given to everyone even the winner... gag

So, they now have a culture of Generation Y and X people who don't know how to compete for self-satisfaction. Instead they adopt groups of people with the false hope of finding their identities.

Start competing again... and this lack of self-esteem will be alleviated.

It's impossible to be an effective member of a group if you lack self-esteem.

[ishabibble]

I agree, but our culture is disintegrating far more quickly than we can absorb. What may have been a self-esteem issue even a few yrs. ago has now become this:

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/06/09/gonna-be-a-long-election/

Is it national suicide if I don't want to go along?

[donna]

“The concept of multiculturalism threatens to unravel all that good work. Here is a genuinely utopian enterprise, more utopian indeed than the Tower of Babel. . . . The U.S. is moving toward a system in which the government presides over a number of different social groups, some of which have their own language and type of education. This approach undermines social unity and allows construction of a multicultural society, which is the very opposite of America’s previous practice. The government aims to supervise these different groups and keep the peace by redistributing income from one to another.”
- Lady Margaret Thatcher -

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1900550/posts#15

[rogue yam]

Is that what “Diversity” is trying to break up?

Yes.

[goldstategop]

That is exactly what the Left doing - destroying America's national will and identity. Who are we? What are our values? What do we live by? For what will we fight and die? According to the Left, for "blood and oil," not for higher ideals or abstract goals like freedom and national survival. Natan Scharansky is right - the terrorists have a will and an identity, Do Western societies like ours?

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Fitzy_888]

“Identity and Freedom go hand and hand.”

The KGB told Natan Sharansky, just say we’re right and your wrong -and we’ll let you go free. Natan Sharansky would not do that, he stayed in solitary confinement for years.

Review of the book and the man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZWXmexLRbw

[Steve Van Doorn]

is Identity the same as nationalism?
I am a bit vague on that.

[piasa]

No.