TIME

The Dangerous Quest for Identity

All humans ask themselves who they are, where they came from, and what is their identity. This quest for identity is important and fascinating, but it can also be dangerous. In attempting to define a clear identity for myself, I might close myself off to the world. I might conclude that my identity is defined by belonging to a single group of people, emphasizing those parts in me that connect me to the chosen group, and ignoring all my other parts.

But people are incredibly complex beings. If we focus on just one part of our identity and imagine that it alone matters, we cannot understand who we really are. For example, for me as a Jew, it is obvious that Jewish history and Jewish culture are important to my identity. But to understand who I

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