Labels make the person

In December, a group dedicated to bringing people together to solve the nation’s pressing problems held a high-profile, celebrity-packed kickoff. A few people thought it was a great idea, and a few people is exactly how many went on to support “No Labels” —

Despite widespread media coverage and a December launch event that drew numerous high-profile politicians, the group has only managed to attract 18,697 signatures for its No Labels Declaration ("We are not labels — we are people”).

The writer notes that “No Labels” is similar to a few other efforts at breaking the partisan, two-party divide that share a common feature: no one cares. As counterpoint, he notes that an onine gaming petition attracted more than twice the number of signatures than the three “unity” efforts combined.

The obvious takeaway, that people don’t care about online petitions or joining a new group, may have some validity, but I don’t think that’s the real point. I think any effort to de-label people, or to insist “we are all one” is bound to fail for a simple reason: People want an identity, and labels tell us what that identity is. The assumption behind “No Labels” and such efforts is that labels are inherently bad and should be eliminated. Given that a label is just a thing, a creation of the human mind, it is not the label itself that we should question but the ideas being put forward by that label.

I have no problem being labelled “progressive” or “Democrat” or “leftie”. While these can be used as pejoratives, I reject those efforts and have been spending my recent life demonstrating that these labels indicate a person who works hard for the common good, a person with compassion for others and a desire to see a better world for all of us. At the same time, I have no qualms labeling those I see working against the common good, advocating for selfish goals, willing to trade our future for short-term gain: conservatives, tea partiers, wingnuts, neocons — depending on the extremity of their advocacy.

Labels allow us to know ourselves and each other. They also allow us to be lazy, substituting thought with cheap and easy application of a single word. But labels used in this way are devoid of meaning; they serve no purpose but to harm and divide. I am sure this is part of what led the founders of “No Labels” to act, disgust that instead of dialogue and shared action towards a common purpose we have name-calling and superficial judgments. This problem won’t be resolved by eliminating labels. “Just say no” never works. A far more effective slogan is “Just do it” — take your label and show the world what it means.

I like knowing who I am. I like being able to identify those around me who share my goals and beliefs, as well as those who do not. Labels make such differentiations possible. Humans need to know these things. We are social animals. Labels are in our dna: family, clan, species; food, foe, mate. We die without such labels, and, in our social settings, we wander aimlessly. But labels must always mean something. When I call someone “friend”, is this a fact or a necessity of social networking interaction? Is the person calling herself a “progressive” someone dedicated to grassroots democracy or simply afraid to be tagged “liberal”? Is that guy actually a “patriot” or is “jingoist” more apt?

Instead of wasting our time trying to undo what is essential to human nature, our time is better spent defining our labels intelligently. When I define “progressive” as I do, I see nothing in the label that excludes a person with conservative inclinations. Whether or not conservative beliefs are consistent with progressivism is something to be learned through political interaction; but by starting with the labels we wear and then working through, honestly and openly, what these labels mean, we can discover what values and goals we share. And that’s the first step to working out the compromises so necessary to a democratic political system.

“I think, therefore, I am”. Am what? I think, therefore, I am what I label myself to be. It’s how we start our journey to self-knowledge and, from there, knowledge of others. And then we can move to the place most of us are seeking: the common good.