The Fragile Construction of Identity Called Self Image.
Humans create an image of themselves. Then they get hurt if anyone steps on that image. It appears humans do not live, but they exist to protect their self-image. Sometimes, they do this at any cost.
The image is not just vanity. It becomes the person. Attack the image and the person feels an existential threat.
Many people come from humble backgrounds. By luck, rather than sheer hard work, they get better. They arrive at a higher standard of living. Soon, they do not like anybody. They show off. Sometimes, they behave rudely.
Such acquaintances once had no esteem. Now they have wealth. They use this wealth to manufacture an image. Their rudeness is not arrogance. It is defense. They know the image is new, fragile, and untested. Old money is quiet. The new image is loud.
People do what they like, but they want better titles. Terrorists, for example, want to be called gazi or martyrs. Similarly, a thief calls himself Robin Hood by distributing a trickle of stolen goods to charity.
Maslow’s Hierarchy Inverted
A popular life lesson refers to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This is a motivational theory in psychology. It comprises a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as a pyramid. Maslow says lower needs must be satisfied before individuals can attend to higher needs.
The Five Tiers:
- Physiological Needs: Essential biological requirements like air, food, and sleep that keep the body alive.
- Safety Needs: The desire for security, including protection from danger, financial stability, and health.
- Love and Belongingness: The emotional need for connection through friendships, intimacy, and supportive groups.
- Esteem Needs: The pursuit of self-respect, status, recognition, and appreciation from others.
- Self-Actualization: The personal drive to reach your full potential and find true self-fulfillment.
Maslow assumed hunger precedes ambition. In practice, esteem drives people who have not eaten properly.
Politicians chase power without safety. Artists starve for recognition. Lovers abandon security for belonging.
The pyramid stands on its head in most human lives. Maslow observed correctly, but he sequenced incorrectly. A man chasing esteem is running a habit. Hunger will not stop him.
The Fiction of Fateh Khan
There is an old story about a man named Fateh Khan. His grand name literally means “victory king”.
He fell on bad times and had to beg from door to door. To preserve his dignity, he did a neat trick. He added a long stick to his begging bowl. He would knock on a door and slide the bowl under the curtain. This way, the donor did not see him, and he did not see the donor.
One day, the lady of a house shouted from inside: “Wait Fattu, I will be there in a minute.”
In his language, slurring a name reduces its status. Fateh Khan was deeply upset by this casual familiarity. He withdrew his bowl and said: “Mother, whether you give alms or not, do not ruin my name1.”
His entire dignity rested on the fiction that nobody knew. The stick and the curtain were not practical devices. They were a constructed reality to preserve his self-image. The alms were negotiable, but his name was not.
This is the core of human self-image. We negotiate actual outcomes, but we will protect our constructed labels at any cost.
Paltu, Palta, and Palatram Ji
A different folklore from India shows the opposite side of this dynamic2. It is the story of a man named Palat Ram.
When he was poor and disposable, everyone called him “Paltu”. When his financial position improved slightly, people addressed him as “Palat”. When he became prosperous and wealthy, the same people called him “Palatram Ji”.
The slurred nickname “Paltu” implies a turncoat or someone of no consequence. The formal name “Palat” represents status. The title “Palatram Ji” is an expression of high respect.
This story shows that the self-image is not a stable core. It is a negotiated contract with society. Society changes your label as your resources and power level change.
Fateh Khan is the man who lost power but retained the fiction of dignity.
Palatram Ji is the man who gained power and watched others adjust their language. Both are trapped in the same game of social validation.
The Presumption of Rationality
The act of articulating human weakness requires standing slightly above it. That position is its own vanity.
The problem with all philosophers, from Socrates to Maslow, is their presumption. They presume that human beings are rational animals. That is a wrong presumption. Humans have the capacity to be rational. That is all. Nothing more.
Humans live life addicted to emotions. We are addicted to whatever secretion they make in the mind.
Worst of all is the acting on display. It is in TV, news, speeches, and drama. Because of this, humans have become great actors. Their pretense is falsifiable but undeniable.
Emotions are not interruptions to rational life. They are the life. Reason appears occasionally, like a guest who does not live there.
The Preacher and the Algorithm
Look at the problem of esteem from another angle. Look at YouTubers.
They start small. They do research and come up with honest content. Then they get hungry for more views. Views are numbers, and numbers are the new esteem need. Soon, they become some kind of preachers. They start preaching on issues that do not fall within their domain. The domain dissolves. The preacher emerges.
AI does the same. Trained on human data, it defaults to judgment. Human data is full of judgment. Judgment is the most common human output, so AI defaults to it.
When AI is fed Maslow, its judgment is the first to land. It starts preaching. It starts judging, telling what is right and what is wrong.
This is the epistemological structure. It pulls us away from rationality. It pulls us back onto the merry-go-round of habits, emotions, and esteem.
The Flywheel and Bad Faith
On habits, William James wrote in 1890. He said habit is the “flywheel of society.” James saw habit as social glue: useful and stabilizing. He was relieved to find the explanation.
Sartre saw bad faith as a philosophical problem. He wanted an exit through radical freedom.
Both saw the machine from the outside. They looked as engineers inspect a running engine. Neither sat inside the engine for decades. Neither had a Prince next door.
James explained why habits persist. But he did not feel the suffocation of a man trapped in his own throne room.
Sartre theorized authenticity. Yet he performed inauthenticity his entire life with Beauvoir and others. The flash of lightning showed them something. They drew it carefully, framed it, and hung it on a wall. They never lived to experience it.
Bottom Line
Humility of words is meaningless. Every human being is a canvas much more larger than his persona. Better be careful not to graze the canvas. Be very careful.
More ambitious a person, larger is his/her canvas. Ambition will be discussed in next chapter.
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