This goes to bit of tangent:<p>&quot;In my opinion, we are, unfortunately, a people who define ourselves not by who we are but by who we are not.&quot;<p>That&#x27;s the only recipe of identity that I&#x27;m aware of. Personal identity seems to be just bunch of descriptions you assume. For you to be &quot;good at math&quot; someone has to be bad at math, or the description is meaningless. National identity is just some approximate lowest common denominator of similar sort.<p>The best we can do is to avoid putting ourselves on good - bad axle and try to find descriptions that are different and neutral.