Clarence Paller
Have you noticed yourself, or others during conversations with friends, family and strangers start defining one another with labels? For example, I have this job, I have many followers, I am this faith, this political party, this type of person etc.
This can lead to defining personal perceived worth on grades, accomplishments, pay-checks, likes, fashion, and status. This becomes a never-ending hamster wheel that people find themselves trapped on.
“A person’s received labels shape a person’s identity in society and dictate their future beliefs, choices and goals.”
In these types of situations, those who self-label may come to experience internalized prejudice, which occurs when individuals turn prejudice directed toward them by others onto themselves. Internalized prejudice has been found to predict more negative self-concept and poorer psychological adjustment in members of various groups, including sexual minorities (Carter, 2012) and racial minorities (Szymanski & Obiri, 2011). What this creates is a self-sabotaging vicious cycle mentality that can plague a person for their whole life.
Labels are limiting and dangerous. At the personal level, labels create anguish when an individual feels they are not up to par to the supposed society standard, falling behind, not cool enough, not rich enough. On the opposite end of the spectrum anguish can come from, being arrogant, judging others, and perceived entitlement. These traits are all tied to the ego.
“The quicker you are in attaching verbal or mental labels to things, people, or situations, the shallower and more lifeless your reality becomes, and the more deadened you become to reality” Eckhart Tolle
The problem is labels take a person out of their power and essentially put them into a little box where the person becomes a prisoner. In the song, “Already Gone” by the Eagles, the concept is captured in the line,
“So often it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key.”
It is easy to see that defining people with labels is a powerful tool of control and a very lucrative business. That is why advertising is a very physiological field with copious sums of money spent on the science, data and focus groups behind it. The tie in between labels on people and society control is visible. For instance, look at the brands becoming “woke” during these challenging times when society has created more and more sub-labels for people. More labels create more division and fraction in society. The labels mean people can justify being a victim and never take accountability for their actions, thoughts and words. Labels are a convenient scapegoat of personal responsibility for one’s circumstances in life.
“When we give our minds and our responsibility away, we give our lives away. If enough of us do it, we give the world away and that is precisely what we have been doing throughout known human history. This is why the few have always controlled the masses.”
(David Icke, The Biggest Secret: The Book That Will Change the World)
The labels are then weaponized by media, government and influencers to stir up sentiment in society that creates an us vs. them mentality. The more labels the more enemies. The Latin phrase “Divide et impera” is as old as politics and war. The divide your enemy so you can reign approach is attributed to Julius Cesar — he successfully applied it to conquer Gaul twenty-two centuries ago. The idea of the West where everyone has a chance to succeed regardless of any label is under attack. We can see this in critical race theory, war on genders, and censoring free speech. Everyone who speaks out is labelled a racist, ignorant, bigot etc. in the name of political correctness.
“Political correctness is about denial, usually in the weasel circumlocutory jargon which distorts and evades and seldom stands up to honest analysis.”
Labels on the one hand provide a system of understanding the world around us, and organizing it, but the reality is labels create chaos. The label replaces the essence of what is being labelled.
“A flower or bird could show you the way back to God, to the Source of yourself. When you look at it or hold it and let it be without imposing a word or mental label on it a sense of awe, of wonder, arises within you. Its essence silently communicates itself to you and reflects your own essence back to you.” Tolle
The answer then is simple; people must shed their labels and understand they are so much more then little boxes of limited perception. We are all connected, from every sentiment being that lives to the water, wind, earth, and trees. It does not matter what label you have been given or chose to adopt in your life.
“I have the soul of a white man, the soul of a black man, the soul of an Asian man; the soul of every man” Matshona Dhliwayo
When people understand in mass that they are part of all that is and ever was and ever will be; then people will take back their power that has been siphoned off in the form of labels and through egos. It takes humility, courage, kindness and having a sense of wonder to come back to being your true authentic essence.
“When you are spiritually connected, you are not looking for occasions to be offended, and you are not judging and labeling others. You are in a state of grace in which you know you are connected to God and thus free from the effects of anyone or anything external to yourself” Wayne Dyer
