Identity vs Being

[Magical Realist]

What's the difference? Too often we mistake the two, primarily because when we say "be" or "am" or "is" it is referring to a predicate. I AM a man. I AM a human being. I AM an American. I AM gay. I AM agnostic. And so on and so on. This is our identity, which in the end is hopelessly categorical, always amounting to one being a member of some larger set of identical members. It is always a classification, and as such is generic and empty of any sense of really BEING anything at all. And it is an easy and imitative and a totally fake kind of being.

So what is authentic being? What is it to "be", not something else, but to just
"be" in itself? That is the much harder kind of being because it is inherently undefinable and unclassifiable and uncategorical. It isn't a label we put on and take off depending on where we are or who we're with. Ultimately it is what is unidentifiable in us, because it is what is totally original and unobjective about us. It thus usually dawns on us at some point in our lives as the "not being" of a something or someone. A growing dissatisfaction with our many daily assumed identities. A deepening sense of emptiness and alienation from ourselves. It is the not being of anything we can deliberately become or emulate. In time it is realized to be simply the subjective childlike presence of ourselves to our lives. The totally nascent and creative wellspring from which all our conscious experiences arise. We must learn to live spontaneously and playfully from that inner imaginative source in ourselves, and eschew all the many charades that the world expects us to pantomime in exchange its own continued favor and approval. Being is just being in itself, because in the end there is nothing objective for us to be or become.

[Syne]

Until all the gender nonsense, no one "identified as a man." It was just a given. They were just being a man. Even today, no one goes around "identifying as a human." They are just being a human. No one really gives it a second thought.

Personally, I don't identify as religious. I just believe a God exists. There's plenty of ways people "just are," without feeling any need to identify themselves as such. I've never identified myself as an inhabitant of my state (Texan, Californian, etc.). I just tell people where I'm from, if asked. Same with my sexual orientation.

It seems like it's only those people who have made something they overtly identify as essential to their existence that are identifying more than simply being.

[Magical Realist]

Unfortunately in our modern day capitalist society there is tremendous pressure to get young people to commit to some singular identity in their lives. Hence we send them off to college and expect them all to have lofty career goals and to graduate with degrees officially certifying them as career ready, be it a doctor or lawyer or programmer or journalist or engineer or business person or any other prestigious identity. This is all so baked into the system that we can't even be financially successful and afford a house and a family without taking on this lifetime persona.

But its not really Being. It's just an objective role we play in our society in order to accrue various benefits and social esteem. So after so many years of identifying with our career, Being then raises its long-neglected ugly head at about middle age, and this game of being a good and dedicated such and such begins to feel faked and forced upon us. There is a growing sense of our lives lacking something truly our own and so we get lots of people having nervous breakdowns or suddenly living a life totally different to the one they were suckered into.

I myself realized this when I was 38 and in the Navy. I had a depressive episode because I wanted out so badly and so they locked me up in a psych ward, put me on antidepressants, and promptly showed me the exit. I then moved to Portland to pursue a whole new life, one not assigned to me by society. And I haven't regretted it since. It seems only when we learn to live deliberately and be the unique and creative Being we were really meant to be all along that we find our meaning in this universe.

[Syne]

That's not capitalism. The universal pipeline to college is due to government subsidies, which incentivize people who can't keep up to take on debt or waste taxpayer money.
Any time government gets involved, it always makes things worse. In this case, raising tuitions by pumping more money into the system.

Before government made college accessible to everyone, only those smart enough or dedicated enough went to college.

But aside from more status oriented careers, I doubt that most people heavily identify with their career.