Identities: How Governed, Who Pays?

by Hasan Bülent Paksoy

This ebook delves into the principles behind governance and identity. In the past, the governing strata could force a change of identity upon a polity. Today, such efforts continue under a new set of rules, while some avant-garde members of certain polities are attempting a voluntary change of identity. What cannot be changed, however, is the composite nature of identity: a person is an offspring, a sibling, a member of a subunit of the greater polity; and there are many additional layers.

Any attempt to change identity, be it by force or voluntarily, cannot change fundamentals. What it can do is untie some of an individual’s social and cultural connections, thereby loosening his or her obligations; but the polity, collectively, pays the cost.