To expand on some thoughts from 'Ponderings #1' concerning the formation of identity; it seems that our identities and positions are not merely things that we morph into, according to our desires. Or even (as some language would suggest) parts that are already within us that are 'more true' than who we are now, simply waiting to be discovered- but instead roles that are equally inflicted on us by the normative demands of those around us, as much as they are products of our reactions to experience.
To elaborate, a sub- for example, may form the desire to be so from an excess of responsibility and control in their public life. The position itself seeming as a kind of release from the tensions of the mundane. But notice how the conditions of that mundanity are the result of material circumstances that are perpetuated by others. Your responsibilities at your job set by your bosses. The subordinates and clients you must manage. The kids you must care for. The list goes on, but fundamentally who we feel inclined to become appears to be shaped by our resistances to the effects others demand of us.
This has some very interesting implications that I invite you to examine, keeping in mind your own personal circumstances.
Though, I have to wonder: What does this imply for the isolated among us? And would those implications vary if that isolation were self inflicted or imposed by others? There is something to be found here, I suspect.
