I’m pretty sure that trying not to have an identity just means that your brain will identify as the sort of superior person who is above having identities, in much the same way that claims to not care about status are basically claiming to have status higher than everyone who cares about status.
I imagine that there might be meditative or other practices to shut off or disconnect the brain bits that care about identity and status, but mere conscious avoidance of anything related to identity or status is just defining another kind of identity and status, with the same detrimental effects on reasoning… while also foregoing any practical benefits that otherwise could have been obtained. A bit like going into a restaurant, paying for the food, and then not eating it because it was too expensive. If you’re going to foot the bill either way, you might as well get some nutrients out of it.
(Also, the Dark Lord comment kinda sounds like an appeal to identity, i.e. “don’t be the kind of foolish person who bargains with dark lords”, and an implied humblebrag that you can achieve your goals without needing to do this sort of thing, and thus are higher status than the post author or anyone who might find the post helpful. Even if those things weren’t your intent, even if your brain didn’t include them in the message on purpose behind your back, some, if not most of the recipients of your message have brains that will take it that way, because that’s just how ubiquitously insidious the status-and-identity hardware is.)
I’m pretty sure that trying not to have an identity just means that your brain will identify as the sort of superior person who is above having identities, in much the same way that claims to not care about status are basically claiming to have status higher than everyone who cares about status.
I imagine that there might be meditative or other practices to shut off or disconnect the brain bits that care about identity and status, but mere conscious avoidance of anything related to identity or status is just defining another kind of identity and status, with the same detrimental effects on reasoning… while also foregoing any practical benefits that otherwise could have been obtained. A bit like going into a restaurant, paying for the food, and then not eating it because it was too expensive. If you’re going to foot the bill either way, you might as well get some nutrients out of it.
(Also, the Dark Lord comment kinda sounds like an appeal to identity, i.e. “don’t be the kind of foolish person who bargains with dark lords”, and an implied humblebrag that you can achieve your goals without needing to do this sort of thing, and thus are higher status than the post author or anyone who might find the post helpful. Even if those things weren’t your intent, even if your brain didn’t include them in the message on purpose behind your back, some, if not most of the recipients of your message have brains that will take it that way, because that’s just how ubiquitously insidious the status-and-identity hardware is.)