Who am I?
It's a different question than what am I.
I am many things; a musician, a a friend, a brother, a man, angry, happy... the list goes on. It changes with different times and circumstances. What I am points to who I am. But what I am does not make me who I am.
What I am is a reflection of who I am.
Which helps, because I don't really have a good understanding of who I am. I know what I'm likely to do, but not what I'm made of. When a person is stripped of their personality- for example: through joining the military, and then having their identity broken down and subdued - what they are changes. (They become a soldier, and look, think and act accordingly). The person inside - who they are - still remains.
How do I articulate this; the sense of self that is observable and unique, the different ways in which brains process information, filter words and ideas, and otherwise react and interact with the world around them and the body they inhabit?
Even when you're brainwashed, who you are is still there. What you are is different. What you think is different. Your training, worldview, and habits have all changed. This will change the way you interact with people of all sorts. Yet, those things you do still do not change who you are. Or do they?
Does your consciousness, your 'you'ness become different? Does your genetic structure change? Are your cells now different? Will your dna be altered?
The body you have is certainly going to affect the way your interaction with life develops. You can be of any type, weight, beauty, colour; they all serve to sculpt the character of the who inside the body.
So when you don't like what someone is, it doesn't necessarily give an accurate picture of who they are. Ideas can be poisonous. Groups develop individuals, and individuals change their groups.
It's all a very nice way of saying that you can choose (to a certain extant) what you are.
But you can't change who you are.
You can change many things about yourself; action, thought, habit, destination.. but the underlying person is still their through all of that. Even if the experiences are locked away or erased, the same consciousness remains in the skull of that head.
Who are they, what have they done?
What are they doing about it?
(excreting their personal musings on a page and throwing it up on the internet, maybe?)
It's a different question than what am I.
I am many things; a musician, a a friend, a brother, a man, angry, happy... the list goes on. It changes with different times and circumstances. What I am points to who I am. But what I am does not make me who I am.
What I am is a reflection of who I am.
Which helps, because I don't really have a good understanding of who I am. I know what I'm likely to do, but not what I'm made of. When a person is stripped of their personality- for example: through joining the military, and then having their identity broken down and subdued - what they are changes. (They become a soldier, and look, think and act accordingly). The person inside - who they are - still remains.
How do I articulate this; the sense of self that is observable and unique, the different ways in which brains process information, filter words and ideas, and otherwise react and interact with the world around them and the body they inhabit?
Even when you're brainwashed, who you are is still there. What you are is different. What you think is different. Your training, worldview, and habits have all changed. This will change the way you interact with people of all sorts. Yet, those things you do still do not change who you are. Or do they?
Does your consciousness, your 'you'ness become different? Does your genetic structure change? Are your cells now different? Will your dna be altered?
The body you have is certainly going to affect the way your interaction with life develops. You can be of any type, weight, beauty, colour; they all serve to sculpt the character of the who inside the body.
So when you don't like what someone is, it doesn't necessarily give an accurate picture of who they are. Ideas can be poisonous. Groups develop individuals, and individuals change their groups.
It's all a very nice way of saying that you can choose (to a certain extant) what you are.
But you can't change who you are.
You can change many things about yourself; action, thought, habit, destination.. but the underlying person is still their through all of that. Even if the experiences are locked away or erased, the same consciousness remains in the skull of that head.
Who are they, what have they done?
What are they doing about it?
(excreting their personal musings on a page and throwing it up on the internet, maybe?)
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