True-Fake-Lost Identity

Rick Burger, Stefan Gräf, Jan Groszer

What is lost identity? Lost identity is taken from you. You claim it back if you accept your true/fake identity. What if those terms do not exist? In the consumer paradigm, true/fake identity terms have lost all meaning. There is no natural/given identity left. The moral basis of capitalism is everyone are in charge of their own destiny. Everyone can make it. There are two problems. First, this is a myth. Not everyone can make it. Choosing one’s identity is a privilege for those with education and economic means. Secondly, there is a conflict between emotional needs, desires and performance of an identity that is based on the consumer concept and dependent on the validation by those to associate with. Consumer culture is narcissistic. Everything I do or acquire becomes a signifier of who I am. My actions and acquisitions are performed for what they signify. One may speak of an authentic or fake self and not identity, which is a construct in our contemporary culture. Is identity a myth and is the definition replaced by the narcissistic homo economicus?