The-Morality-of-Capitalism-PDF

primitive magical-religious communities that live in caves, worshipthunder and beasts, and, due to their primitivism, are increasinglyvulnerable to exploitation and extermination. All other cultures,in particular those that have the right to be called modern andalive, have evolved to the point that they are but a remote reflectionof what they were just two or three generations before. Thisevolution is easily apparent in countries like France, Spain, andEngland, where the changes over the last half century have beenso spectacular and profound that a Marcel Proust, a FedericoGarcía Lorca, or a Virginia Woolf would hardly recognize todaythe societies in which they were born— the societies their workshelped so much to renew.The notion of “cultural identity” is dangerous. From a socialpoint of view, it represents merely a doubtful, artificial concept,but from a political perspective it threatens humanity’s most preciousachievement: freedom. I do not deny that people who speakthe same language, were born and live in the same territory, facethe same problems, and practice the same religions and customshave common characteristics. But that collective denominatorcan never fully define each one of them, and it only abolishesor relegates to a disdainful secondary plane the sum of uniqueattributes and traits that differentiates one member of the groupfrom the others. The concept of identity, when not employedon an exclusively individual scale, is inherently reductionist anddehumanizing, a collectivist and ideological abstraction of allthat is original and creative in the human being, of all that hasnot been imposed by inheritance, geography, or social pressure.Rather, true identity springs from the capacity of human beingsto resist these influences and counter them with free acts of theirown invention.The notion of “collective identity” is an ideological fictionand the foundation of nationalism. For many ethnologists andanthropologists, collective identity does not represent the trutheven among the most archaic communities. Common practicesand customs may be crucial to the defense of a group, but themargin of initiative and creativity among its members to emancipatethemselves from the group is invariably large, and individualdifferences prevail over collective traits when individuals are117