Francesco Remotti

Short info

“Identity is a poisonous word. The poison in this word is clear and beautiful, trusted by all, almost universally used. There can be a lot or a little of it, at times it is even imperceptible and almost innocuous. But even when it is imperceptible, the toxicity is contained in the numerous ideas that the word contains and, over time, can manifest, in unexpected and sudden ways. Why and in what sense is identity a poisonous word? Simply because it promises what it is not; because it deludes us about who we are; because it passes for real what is instead a fiction or, at best, an aspiration. Let us admit then that identity is a myth, a great myth of our time.”