I was on a ferry the other day and ran into that quintessential Harley-Davidson motorcyclist. On a bagger with a half helmet, Harley Davidson boots, and a Harley jacket with that round emblem on the back – slightly wider than Captain America’s shield. The unmistakable cross-country rider to Sturgis. It is among the biggest motorcycle gatherings on the planet. Absolutely a cheerful guy to converse with, but then also signaling a clear identity.

Not just in motorcycling, adopting identities wholesale is a human trait. Whether it’s politics, art, culture, or even technology — we seek to belong. We signal identity not just through clothing, but through gadgets, accessories, and through expressed opinions. Especially in politics or economics, we tend to state beliefs primarily to signal who we are, not because we believe they are absolute truths.

Often, we become liberal, conservative, or libertarian not through extensive research but through instinct. Research and study are expensive, while ideological signaling is entertaining and cheap. So, it’s only human to pick where we want to belong and then adopt ideas wholesale. In fact, actual research would evolve our own thoughts in unique ways, making it difficult to fit in. It also tends to make life lonelier.

Evidently, it’s not the truth that we seek – but it’s that identity. It’s common for all political factions to have quite a bit of infighting as well. Internal tussles over who is the true torchbearer are well-known. Our instincts will simply not allow that group identity to get corrupted. It seems like identity is an essential driving force in all our pursuits.

Viewed through that lens, all contentious social convulsions are related to identity. Even the trivial ones. Recently came across this band Deafheaven — it triggers an identity crisis among black metal fans. The band channeled several black metal influences without their aesthetics. Sounds like black metal, but fails to reflect the genre’s artistic roots. Essentially corrupting a pristine identity — wreaking havoc in a black metal-head’s otherwise serene existence.

The world is constantly in this state of disruption, plunging from one crisis of personal identity to another. Each such crisis spawns new groups and personas. Whether it’s ‘true Norwegian Black Metal’, capital (L)ibertarian vs small (l)ibertarian, or convolutions like ‘democratic socialist liberal’ or ‘MAGA conservative’. Reasons for the fractious factions could be many – tribal instincts, cognitive affinity to ideologies, packaging by intellectuals and influencers, or a combination of them all. Eventually, an ecosystem that thrives on fragmentation will fuel the divisions. But like most things, there is also a flipside to this.

The fragmented mosaic also functions as an essential pillar in Federalism. Madison eloquently stated — “the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority.” The gridlock and quarrels prevent the concentration of power and concerted action at scale. In the long run, this becomes a favorable bias against transient emotions, prejudices, and fears of the masses from causing permanent damage to a republic. But the trade-off is — meaningful policy change at scale becomes harder. This fragmentation also implies that we need some shared norms and emergent structure for social coordination.

Republished at ridersmodel.com