Bespoke Identity Formation

We’re in the midst of a big shift, no doubt. Check out this report from the Nation : “ NHL Takes ‘Historic Step’ for LGBT Equality .”

The piece speaks of sports as a bulwark of “heteronormative socialization,” with the implicit suggestion that this, like homophobia, has to go. What would a society look like that doesn’t involve “heteronormative socialization”? My view: It’s a society in which the vast majority of people are disoriented in life, while the elites navigate rather well in a culture of bespoke identity formation.

Capitalism works best when all our desires are free, because then they can be reconfigured and redirected toward the needs of the market. That’s pretty much what the Nation wants, it seems.

When I was a young person I could imagine the success of the LGBT agenda. Sexual freedom was in full swing when I came of age in the late 1970s. What I couldn’t have imagined is the present complicity of the left with the dissolving, atomizing effects of global capitalism. Whether it’s legalizing marijuana, permitting pornography, or ending “heteronormative socialization,” the left today is all about getting morality out of the way. The marketplace, therapy, and bureaucratic management fill the void.