labingi

That's a very interesting perspective. I'm inclined to agree. "Knowing one's place" can be oppressive but also comforting and affirming. I think this is part of the need to find some balance between individualism and collectivism.

For the US, as a such a hyper-individualist society, I think we sometimes devalue having a sense of duty or commitment to a role, even while managing to bind people very tightly to the roles of laborer and consumer. And we tend to frame those roles not as commitment or duty or identity but material necessity, an inevitable physical need, which is less affirming. It also strikes me that in the US (and not just the US), one consequence of living with a lot of diversity, a fast-evolving society, and laudable desire for cultural inclusion is losing "home" culture. I think almost everyone over 30 (and some under?) feel like the world they grew up in doesn't culturally exist anymore, and while some of the those changes are good and necessary, that's also very alienating, to be a stranger in your own land and have no home to go to. I think a lot of the backlash we see against equity comes via that alienation. We do need to work for equity, but I think we would do that better by recognizing a little more that loss of home culture, in fact, is serious and creates psychological pain. That got wandery--just some thoughts.