What's the biggest destroyer of our collective identities?

Question

WalMart? Cable TV? Rap music? The government? The education system?

Answer 1

Parents trying to conform you to their understanding of life without you figuring it out for yourself.

Answer 2

Nothing can destroy our collective identities if we choose to hold to our morals and mores with determination.

Answer 3

Collective Identity? What defines us as a group?

As a Canadian I guess the biggest thing "destroying" our collective identity is American TV. We have become Americanized by it and have difficulty creating a uniquely Canadian identity.

Answer 4

Interracial breeding.  Good bye caucasians.

Answer 5

Im preety sure its the goverment.

Answer 6

Reality.  There is nothing more unsettling to the collective sort of identity than the individual assertion of itself as a individual social being.  That almost makes it hard to make collective assumptions that try to remove the individual identity.

Answer 7

Easy, the internet than wal mart

Answer 8

All the -isms.

Answer 9

your mom

Answer 10

All of the above....except wal-mart as a mother of three I practically live there.

Answer 11

Liberals, democrats and all of the other separatists people who still view us as separate but equal. Viva la GOP!

Answer 12

the media

Answer 13

i think that television and wal-mart are the biggest destroyers of our collective identities

television is powerful because it appeals to both our audio and visual senses. im not sure if we realize what sort of images we are absorbing when we watch television. . The fact that we all watch the same shows also eats at our collective identity.

I think that wal mart eats at our identity because all over the country we are buying the exact same things. In local production there are more opportunities for people to be inventive and creative producing clothes/furniture. In a company like wal-mart a limited number of companies are sold in all the stores across the country. A much smaller group of individuals has a voice in the creative process.Furthermore, the goods are not being made by americans. The pay of wal-mart employees is a crime considering the share of the market they have in some communities. By having to work so much to make ends meet , our collective identities are diminished.

Answer 14

Anything that commits to the materialistic aspects which undermine our true humanistic beauty. Not just materialistic, but also things that encourage individuals, especially those still immature and fragile(like our young ones), that their self worth, is on how good they look, or how popular they are..worse, how much money we have.

The major agencies which I can think of that contribute the most to these  vital aspects of the "destroyer of our collective identities" are MTV reality TV shows, VH1 reality TV shows, Rap mainstream music, and the whole fashion world.  

I pick these things because they suggest to the young fragile impressionable minds that what matters is not your rich understanding of how we truly are as humans, connected by the our human history and condition, but your worth instead is measured by the surface qualities which are seen at first sight.  Like looks, clothes and riches.  These are vitally dangerous because they operate on a medium (Television) which is propagated to a large audience.  Therefore, effectively dispersing large amount of information to a large amount of people in a very effective way.  This usually happens when the mother and father are not home, but out working.

Unfortunately, I don't see this changing any time soon. And I very much worry about the youths of the future.  May God bless their souls and protect them. We can only do what we can.

Thank you very much, Best wishes,

Ray