Review of 'Identity and Violence : The Illusion of Destiny' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I almost put this book down after I began reading it, fearing that it was a bit overly academic. But I'm glad that I slogged through it, because Amartya Sen's clarity of intellect more than makes up for the barrier of his sometimes academic language and poor cohesiveness in editing. And yes, he does seem to have bundled together the book out of a collection of other writings, as he pointlessly repeats the same statements throughout the book.
His point is simple: reduction of the human identity, in any manner of thought, to a singular attachment to any one community or group is what allows conflict to occur. He argues, convincingly, against the reductionist approach towards viewing all Islamic terrorism as correlated directly to a Muslim identity.
Though his focus is on the identities that he has interacted with the most himself, the framework of his insight can be applied …
I almost put this book down after I began reading it, fearing that it was a bit overly academic. But I'm glad that I slogged through it, because Amartya Sen's clarity of intellect more than makes up for the barrier of his sometimes academic language and poor cohesiveness in editing. And yes, he does seem to have bundled together the book out of a collection of other writings, as he pointlessly repeats the same statements throughout the book.
His point is simple: reduction of the human identity, in any manner of thought, to a singular attachment to any one community or group is what allows conflict to occur. He argues, convincingly, against the reductionist approach towards viewing all Islamic terrorism as correlated directly to a Muslim identity.
Though his focus is on the identities that he has interacted with the most himself, the framework of his insight can be applied to any fractured identities that are a source of conflict in the world. We in the United States are all too familiar with the solitarist approach to identity, and our public representatives would do well to take Sen's advice into consideration. Our public policy in education, public health, and social welfare is often all too firmly based on the restriction of human identity to solely religion, sex, or race. Similarly, the nature of our politics fragments our citizens into arbitrary divisions, narrowing our ability and freedom to choose more widely from a broader range of options.