For those who doubt their existence..

I'm going to post two blogs for these assignments, simply for easier reading.

Assignment Part I:
Rhetoric and Identity -- the most interesting and understandable section of this book so far. Ramage’s ideas of the human identity are fascinating, but, to me, they are not much different from other theorist’s opinions (such as Freud’s id, ego and superego). My question is.. what is so great about the number three? Why do all of these people use that number to divide our identities? I'm sure this question has no solid answer, so I'll move on and give you my insight on this chapter.

Ramage cleverly divides our identity into three dimensions: the "given," the "readymade," and the "constructed." In there own way, all of these dimensions are related and interchangeable; they are also completely opposite. I find the "given" identity the most real. It is the part of us that we cannot necessarily change. The time and place we were born, who we were conceived from, how we grew up - we can't control any of these. We can, however, take parts of what we are given and alter them to fit our desires. For example, one cannot help that he or she was given a large nose, but that person can decide to get plastic surgery to reshape it.. if it is desired. There seems to be two sides to this identity: that which we can alter, and that which we are forced to deal with. Not all things can be changed so we adapt to them and make them suitable. As Ramage mentioned, this is the most boring part of our identity.

The "readymade" identity is a little more complicated. These are the parts of identity are installed in us by others. We have no say in constructing this part of our identity, others do it for us. What makes this so complicated? Well, there are three parts of this dimension: workplace, consumer, and cultural. Most humans come in contact with all three of these parts at least once in their lives. The workplace readymade deals with our jobs and our employers. They construct our identities through work ethic and responsibility. The consumer readymade consists of merchants or anyone who sells us something. This readymade constructs the part of our identity that deals with people and other similar situations. Lastly, there is the cultural readymade, or those who want to sort our priorities in life. These readymades want to construct our identity for better or for worse, with morals, bad habits, or other sorts of things. I found this part of our identity to be most confusing.. but I think I get the main "gist" of it. We cannot control this identity.. we can only live with it and hope it controls us in a positive way. The last part of our identity, according to Ramage, is the "constructed." This identity was hardest for me to grasp. Basically, from what I understand, we take what we can and leave what we must. This is the part of our identity that we ourselves construct. We cannot, however, construct our identity out of nothing so we take anything available that is in the preset limits and boundaries. As always, we can reject whatever we choose and accept the rest.. whatever we want! It's our identity, lets go with the flow and construct a better identity!

As with all of these, they are not noticeable; they exist only in theory. We do not walk around and say, "Hmm.. what part of my given identity can I alter today?" We do all of these things subconsciously. I believe that, with Freud's theory as well, this is just an easier way for humans to understand themselves and what role they play in life. It is no more than a learning tool for those who doubt their own existence in the world – which is most of the human population.

Hoorah for rhetoric! Thank you for making life easier to deal with.