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The Identity Myth: Why We Need to Embrace Our Differences to Beat Inequality
We are in crisis.
As a society we have never been less connected.
The internet and globalisation fuel ignorance and anger, while the disconnect between people's reality and perceived identities has never been greater.
Karl Marx outlined the idea of a material 'base' and politico-cultural 'superstructure'. According to this formula, a material reality - wealth, income, occupation - determined your politics, leisure habits, tastes, and how you made sense of the world. Today, the importance of material deprivation, in terms of threats to life, health and prosperity, are as acute as ever. But the identities apparently generated by these realities are increasingly detached from material circumstances. At the same time, different identities are needlessly conflated through a process of reeling off a list of -isms and -phobias, and are lumped together, as though these groups all somehow have something in common with one another. Th is process is not just inappropriate but obscures the specific nature of problems being faced.
In The Identity Myth , David Swift covers the four different kinds of identity most susceptible to this trend - class, race, sex and age. He considers how the boundaries of identities are policed and how diverse versions of the same identity can be deployed to different ends. Ultimately, it is not that identities are simply more 'complex' than they appear but that there are more important commonalities.
In a powerful call to arms, Swift argues that we must unite against these identity myths and embrace our differences to beat inequality.
As a society we have never been less connected.
The internet and globalisation fuel ignorance and anger, while the disconnect between people's reality and perceived identities has never been greater.
Karl Marx outlined the idea of a material 'base' and politico-cultural 'superstructure'. According to this formula, a material reality - wealth, income, occupation - determined your politics, leisure habits, tastes, and how you made sense of the world. Today, the importance of material deprivation, in terms of threats to life, health and prosperity, are as acute as ever. But the identities apparently generated by these realities are increasingly detached from material circumstances. At the same time, different identities are needlessly conflated through a process of reeling off a list of -isms and -phobias, and are lumped together, as though these groups all somehow have something in common with one another. Th is process is not just inappropriate but obscures the specific nature of problems being faced.
In The Identity Myth , David Swift covers the four different kinds of identity most susceptible to this trend - class, race, sex and age. He considers how the boundaries of identities are policed and how diverse versions of the same identity can be deployed to different ends. Ultimately, it is not that identities are simply more 'complex' than they appear but that there are more important commonalities.
In a powerful call to arms, Swift argues that we must unite against these identity myths and embrace our differences to beat inequality.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published June 28, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 28, 2022
Eminently sensible deconstruction of the divisive, infantilising distraction that is identity politics in its various guises that's refreshing coming from the left, if not anything you probably didn't feel already. Neither is it especially direct in its prose - it's far less combative than the title would suggest.
Among its points: 'POC' is a ludicrous aggregation of groups with massively different experiences; black people can be right wing; anti-Jewish racism is racism; American Latinos are often right wing and being from outside the West doesn't automatically anoint you as a valiant left wing progressive.
The highlight for me is probably the coinage 'Neo-Orientalism' - a term we've needed for decades to describe the narcissism and agency-denial that divides the world into 'Bad West' vs 'Rest of the World'. Good too to see some swipes at the ghoulish chorus of antisemitic weasels that is Owen Jones, Trash Sarkar and the walking one-woman SJW pantomime that is Laurie Penny.
Among its points: 'POC' is a ludicrous aggregation of groups with massively different experiences; black people can be right wing; anti-Jewish racism is racism; American Latinos are often right wing and being from outside the West doesn't automatically anoint you as a valiant left wing progressive.
The highlight for me is probably the coinage 'Neo-Orientalism' - a term we've needed for decades to describe the narcissism and agency-denial that divides the world into 'Bad West' vs 'Rest of the World'. Good too to see some swipes at the ghoulish chorus of antisemitic weasels that is Owen Jones, Trash Sarkar and the walking one-woman SJW pantomime that is Laurie Penny.
August 10, 2023
David Swift's book is concerned with the power of
identity among the left as he thinks it distracts
from material reality and leads to simplistic and
wrongheaded politics of subjectivity.
Though in one section on Trump supporters not
being economically disadvantaged he discusses
their subjective feelings being the key issue
which if correct sort of damages his broader
argument about objective economic problems
and solutions being the better approach.
My favourite feature of the book was the many
interesting statistics he gathered, most chapters
contain great statistics on public attitudes to
identity based issues. The chapters on class and
attempts to wish away the attitudes held by some
working class people were strong.
The theme running throughout the book is that
non-left-wing attitudes are prevalent across
groups including groups which have been
recently harmed by right-wing politics and policy.
Swift believes ignoring this reality risks dooming
the left to irrelevance in the long run.
One complaint is that too often he ascribes
attitudes of the NeoOrientalists or another group
under discussion without giving examples.
He sometimes introduces a
point to refute it but only tangentially does so.
For example on p157 Swift says that it is spurious
that white men are 'railing against their perceived
decline' and states that Americans with low
education care the least about western civilization
being under threat but this does not really
disprove the first sentences claim anyway. There
is no source, so perhaps the poll in question
showed white men being unconcerned about
national decline.
There are some other odd remarks or
questionable claims peppered throughout the
book which were frustrating but while annoying
they don't invalidate the stronger and more
interesting sections.
identity among the left as he thinks it distracts
from material reality and leads to simplistic and
wrongheaded politics of subjectivity.
Though in one section on Trump supporters not
being economically disadvantaged he discusses
their subjective feelings being the key issue
which if correct sort of damages his broader
argument about objective economic problems
and solutions being the better approach.
My favourite feature of the book was the many
interesting statistics he gathered, most chapters
contain great statistics on public attitudes to
identity based issues. The chapters on class and
attempts to wish away the attitudes held by some
working class people were strong.
The theme running throughout the book is that
non-left-wing attitudes are prevalent across
groups including groups which have been
recently harmed by right-wing politics and policy.
Swift believes ignoring this reality risks dooming
the left to irrelevance in the long run.
One complaint is that too often he ascribes
attitudes of the NeoOrientalists or another group
under discussion without giving examples.
He sometimes introduces a
point to refute it but only tangentially does so.
For example on p157 Swift says that it is spurious
that white men are 'railing against their perceived
decline' and states that Americans with low
education care the least about western civilization
being under threat but this does not really
disprove the first sentences claim anyway. There
is no source, so perhaps the poll in question
showed white men being unconcerned about
national decline.
There are some other odd remarks or
questionable claims peppered throughout the
book which were frustrating but while annoying
they don't invalidate the stronger and more
interesting sections.
December 22, 2023
The subject matter is interesting, but the writing feels a bit disjointed. I feel like Swift could have wrote the entire content in a long-form essay, rather than a book. It would have made the writing more disciplined, I think.
I share similar political positions as Swift, and been concerned about the degree which identity-making and the construction of the individual has come to dominate Leftist discourse in the past decade or so. So the critique of the book is not about me disagreeing with his message but rather how it is put crossed and written.
I get what he has trying to say - that because of how heterogeneous and large groups are, it’s makes no sense to assign an overarching identity along with their concomitant default political positions to them just because they are ethnic, religious and gender minorities, or because they are young. It’s a good point that he makes, but the way it is out across is less than convincing. I suspect it is the writing, and at times it seems as if he is still trying to figure out what he is trying to convey on those positions.
I think that this book could have spent more time in gestation, with a clearer narrative and more use of sections and sub headers to improve clarity.
Also, there are also some claims made that are a bit disingenuous, such that trans are not as in great a danger in developed societies like the US and UK compared to being one in the Global South. The murder of Brianna Ghey stands out starkly in that regard.
I share similar political positions as Swift, and been concerned about the degree which identity-making and the construction of the individual has come to dominate Leftist discourse in the past decade or so. So the critique of the book is not about me disagreeing with his message but rather how it is put crossed and written.
I get what he has trying to say - that because of how heterogeneous and large groups are, it’s makes no sense to assign an overarching identity along with their concomitant default political positions to them just because they are ethnic, religious and gender minorities, or because they are young. It’s a good point that he makes, but the way it is out across is less than convincing. I suspect it is the writing, and at times it seems as if he is still trying to figure out what he is trying to convey on those positions.
I think that this book could have spent more time in gestation, with a clearer narrative and more use of sections and sub headers to improve clarity.
Also, there are also some claims made that are a bit disingenuous, such that trans are not as in great a danger in developed societies like the US and UK compared to being one in the Global South. The murder of Brianna Ghey stands out starkly in that regard.
February 8, 2025
Just stated the obvious fact of how people that are marginalised can still be prejudiced
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews