The Sectarian Activists and the Solitarist Identity
How people fight to the death for an illusion
To most people, a terrorist who blows up a marketplace, a revolutionary who massacres civilians, or a nationalist who purges minorities, these actions seem like pure madness. But what if they are not? What if, under the right constraints, such violence is not irrational but completely rational?
The term “solitarist illusion of identity” was popularized primarily by Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen. It describes the fallacy of defining a person’s entire identity by membership in just one singular group or category.
In his book Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny, Sen warned against a profound human tendency: the reduction of complex, diverse human beings to a single identity. A person becomes only Muslim, only Christian, only Jew, only nationalist, or only revolutionary.
All other dimensions of their humanity, their profession, their taste in music, their love for their children, and their humor are erased. This reduction, Sen argued, is an illusion. But it is an illusion with deadly consequences.
As the developer of the “Theory of Cornered Rational Choice,” I have pushed Sen’s insight further. When a person genuinely believes in this solitarist identity, their world narrows, and they have no access to alternative perspectives or communities.
In that compressed environment, extremist action and violence become a rational optimization strategy, especially if that person feels their identity is at risk.
This is not a justification for violence. It is an explanation of its hidden logic. My argument is that for someone who has believed in the illusion Sen described, violent reactive behaviors are not madness or illogical. They are rational reactions that occur in a cornered situation.
Before I apply the lens of my theory, it is important to understand how a solitarist identity becomes a trap. There are two mechanisms: internal and external.
The internal confinement happens when a person becomes so deeply committed to a solitarist identity system that they close their mind to any alternative. They stop reading opposing views. They stop talking to people with different backgrounds.
They interpret every event through a solitarist lens. Over time, they lose the cognitive ability to see any other perspective. Their solitarist identity becomes a cage, but the bars are made of their own conviction.
On the other hand, external confinement happens when a person lives in an environment that offers no alternative identities. They grow up in a community where everyone shares the same religion, the same politics, or the same ethnicity.
The schools teach just one history. The media presents one truth. Their solitarist identity becomes a cage, and the bars are made of their surroundings.
Both forms of confinement produce the same result: the person sees no way out. They are cornered. And when a person is cornered, pressure for adjustment backfires. Extremism becomes rational.
The Theory of Cornered Rational Choice
My theory builds on two simple ideas: compelled option and cornered option
A compelled option is the choice that a rational person selects not because they favor it, but because declining capability (income, skill, or resources) limits their choices. If their capability were not declining, they would not choose that option.
On the other hand, a cornered option is a compelled option that has no accessible alternative. In this case, rising costs or pressures lead to a greater tendency toward the option, not less. Increasing costs or pressures reduce the person’s capability and block access to alternatives. When a rational actor is cornered, pressure backfires.
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This is rational behavior under extreme constraint, not irrationality. I call this the Theory of Cornered Rational Choice, developed by combining Gary Becker’s economic approach with Giffen good theory.
The Rationality of the Solitarist Identity Trap
When the Theory of Cornered Rational Choice is applied to the solitarist identity trap described by Amartya Sen, the mystery of extremist violence vanishes.
When the outside world increases pressure on a person who believes in the solitarist illusion of identity through sanctions, military action, or hostile rhetoric, they are raising the “price” of resistance.
According to ordinary logic, that person should reduce their tendency to resist. But because their compelled option has become a cornered option, and because they believe in this illusion, the increased pressure merely solidifies their reality.
They have absolutely nothing left to lose, like a boxer trapped in the corner of the ring with no way out. Therefore, turning to violence in response to outside pressure is the only rational action available.
It maximizes their microscopic chance of preserving their solitarist identity and surviving their illusionary life.
The desperate fury that looks like madness to an outside observer is actually a highly structured optimization strategy under the constraints created by that illusional circumstance.
In the shadow of believing in this illusion, the person’s rational calculation shifts. The options of abandoning the solitarist identity carry infinite costs.
The only remaining option capable of yielding any sense of meaning, safety, or purpose is absolute, uncompromising defense of that identity.
The Solution: Open the Identity
In order for a cornered person to stop defending their solitarist identity to the death, we should offer them some additive identities. When it is demonstrated that holding various identities is not death, the corner of illusion will be open.
It should be shown them that there are some other communities that will accept them without requiring them to abandon their original identities.
Likewise, for the internally confined, this means exposure to diverse perspectives, safe spaces for holding multiple identities, and the slow work of rebuilding cognitive flexibility.
On the other hand, for the externally confined, this means breaking the monopoly on information, creating pathways to other communities, and reducing the cost of departure. So, the solution is never to press harder, but it is to open the exit.
Conclusion: The Structural Continuity of Conflict
Pure logic, stripped of political or religious emotion, dictates a simple truth: any rational actor will consistently choose escalation when denied a viable exit route.
This holds true whether the actor is a boxer trapped in the corner of the ring, a gladiator in an ancient stadium, or a believer in the illusion of solitarist identity.
Some observers mislabel the extreme actions of cornered individuals as irrational explosions of pride, stubbornness, or madness.
But by viewing these crises through the lens of the Theory of Cornered Rational Choice, we uncover a profound truth: human desperation is underpinned by strict mathematical logic and is, in fact, completely rational.
The key to genuine de-escalation never lies in multiplying pressure on a trapped person. It lies entirely in the wisdom and foresight to open the corner and construct an exit way.
