"Others"

I have always prided myself on my Identity. It never mattered how ruff things got, bad grades, played a bad game, social standing, discomfort, anything at all, I always found comfort in my Identity. This concept of my Identity came into being when I found Hero's. Form about 13 years old till today my three hero's and largest contributors of my Identity have been, Indiana Jones, James Bond, and the most interesting man in the world (from dos equis commercials). Its never bothered me that they are all fictitious, and one is from a beer commercial, They where important to me. You probably read this an laugh, as I do at myself, but I have tried to live my life, to the best of my ability, in the vain of these fictional characters.


My hero' are important because when asked who I regard as "others" or the opposite of my Identity, the first thing I thought of where my three hero. Mainly because that's always my starting point of self examination. I realized that I am members of many groups of people, I am on the Swim team, I am in Kappa Sigma, I go to Dickinson College. However when asked what group I Identify with I would never say I am a Swimmer, Frat Star, or College student. The group I would Identify with is a small group of friends some, just acquaintances, who represent living characteristics of my Hero's. That being said
I suppose I identify with the small group of people Ive meet whom I admire, and my "others" I use to gauge myself is everyone else.

Everything I do I do because of my Identity. I think its a huge factor in every persons life, this is why I am so interested in the "IR theory" Identity perspective. Not everyone Identify;s as I do, many see themselves as, Americans, Arabs, Christians, Athletes, Muslims, Race car drivers ect. ect. What interests me is how a large common Identity effects state decisions. Even though I fancy myself a British spy, I also identify as an American. In many ways consciously or unconsciously, I would probably make decisions like an American to. Dose this mean Barack Obama makes his decision Identifying as an American, as an African American, or some unknown personal hero, or none of the above. What about Assad, Dose his Identity as a minority in his country play a role in his decision making. Honestly I don't know. Questions about decision making are always hypothetical. What dose all this mean? I'm not really sure but its all very interesting.