Sublime

Who is us? What is us? Is there even such a concept as an Asian American consciousness? Is it anything like the double consciousness that W.E.B. Du Bois established over a century ago?

To make ethical choices you cannot have dilemmas between the particular (friends, family) and the general.

It is hardly news that humans seek high status and glory. More unusual is the theory that they do so simply as a consequence of trying to be themselves. To understand this idea, it is worth considering why we develop an identity at all. In the

The notion that compassion costs, but that the cost can be budgeted for, managed, absorbed – paid – is not the most intuitive one. In fact it runs counter to many prevalent media messages about compassion fatigue and the futility of attempting to engage with ‘big’ social problems. (What’s the point? What difference could I make, anyway?) But nevert

“Is that why you came when … when my difference attracted you?” He shook his head. “I came to see what you were.” She frowned, suddenly cautious. “I am myself. You see me.” “As you see me. Do you imagine you see everything?” She did not answer. “A lie offends me, Anyanwu, and what I see of you is a lie. Show me what you really are.”

He was missing, it seemed, the sense of victimization and woundedness and perpetual anger it took to be black,

Friedrich Nietzsche.

Where Balibar, as a consequence, sees our inconvertible cruelty as always about to undermine our politics, and our confidence in politics, Wendy Brown sees neoliberalism – which she defines in Undoing the Demos as ‘a peculiar form of reason that configures all aspects of existence in economic terms’ – as ‘quietly undoing basic elements of democracy

Basing your identity on these kinds of principles enables you to remain open-minded about the best ways to advance them.