Are you who you become or do you become who you are?

truth
A very complex issue. Are we talking about one's social identity or something intrinsic to the individual? Existentialists say we must choose to be what we can become, that our mere existence is not enough, i.e., we have no intrinsic nature, no essence, only existence. We are, in effect, our own creation. Buddhists state that we are essentially empty of personal identity; we are expressions of the great empty ever-changing Void that is the cosmos. We can, as the existentialists argue, take a variety of forms (social identities, roles, etc.), but they are only facades, not to be attached to or believed. We must exist tongue-in-cheek, as it were.

I think you are who you become. We all have the capability to start out at one point and grow and evolve into something else, something more. So many factors come into play which determine the outcome but the capability is there, I think, fron the very beginning.

...

Action speaks louder than words.

Re: Are you who you become or do you become who you are?
Thalion:

>>>Are you who you become or do you become who you are ?

Does Society form its opinion of you based on what you are like, or do you become the way you are because of Society's opinion of you?>>>

You never "are" anyone. From the day you are born until the day you die you ceaselessly become someone else as you encounter new people, experiences and ideas that you have to constantly integrate into the old variables to reconfigue "who" "you" THINK you "are". And then after you are dead it is as though [for you] you never even existed at all.

RP

More like, you choose what you want society's opinion of you to be, based on your perceived societal opinion of yourself and other people. Who was it that wrote about "face"? I can't remember the guy's name, but I seem to have read that article for several different classes now....

truth
Rufio, are you thinking about the sociologist, Erving Goffman? He wrote extensively and insightfully about the faces we wear in public--viz. image management.

Yes, that's the guy... Goffman.

You are who you pretend to be

Not that easy, Blank. Sounds great but it's hardly truth. You can 'pretend' to be all kinds of things but it doesn't mean that is who you are. You can get all dressed up and go shopping with your credit cards, pretending to be rich but when those bills come in, the reality of the situation will wake your ass up.

truth
So, you can pretend to yourself that you are what you are pretending to be to others?

Even if you can afford to be rich, it doesn't neccesarily mean you are, even. Remember the Great Gadsby? "Pretending" is only half of it...

Surely I cannot be what I have become?

What I mean by you are who you pretend to be is this:

When I was in school I was generally at the top of my class by the end of each school year. One year I noticed that the kids that were the most popular were the kids that didn't try very hard in school. So I decided to "pretend" in my classes that I could not figure out how to do my work....by the end of the year I realized that I was actually who I "pretended" to be when I got my report card

Then that's not pretending, obviously. :-P

And the real question is, did your social status at the high school change? Because that's a place where you can't decide to become a different person.

I like what you say, JL....it means to me that we
are our own art works......

Re: Are you who you become or do you become who you are?


I think we all start out becoming who we are as a conscious process of goals, but along the way life gets harder and that can make you change who you are. We always have a choice, but sometimes it hurts too much to go back to something and that loss becomes part of who you are.

I think on the inside, we are who we are and nothing can change that core. However, on the outside, who you are can be shaped by your society. it can be molded by your expiriences, and by what you think you are or should be. but the You that is the very core of your being never changes. it's the spark that will keep you unique no matter how much your society tries to make you the same.

I choose both...

Each of us has a unique genetic structure that dictates every action we make, but then we respond to societies opinions, and eventually become a mixture of the two.