Who are you?

The hierarchy of identity

Through our human experience, what we identify as comes to define us. Whether that be our innate humanness or some arbitrary categorisation from the world, it defines how we choose to carry ourselves.

Most people sincerely believe that they define their own identity. It’s rare to meet an individual who appreciates the deterministic reality that they inhabit.

No one chooses where to be born.

No one chooses who to be born to.

In many ways, these are the two largest determinants of one’s identity.

At any one moment, there are billions of humans living this experience.

They wake up, shit, brush their teeth, go to work or school, spend time with loved ones, eat, drink and sleep- then go on to repeat it again and again.

The stages of the experience don’t change massively; every human must be an embryo, a child, a teenager, an adult, an elderly person and a dead body.

Yet, each individual so certainly holds onto this sense of self.

Their special identity.

The hierarchy for the religious mind starts at the soul or spiritual being. Meanwhile, the staunch materialist or humanist may start their identity at the human.