plasticity of identity and cosmopolitanism

The shift from village life to urban life in the 1600’s in England, forced people to expand their sense of self and even to take on different personas in different circumstances and with different people. The homogeneity of village life, with its clear social distinctions and relatively simple status levels, did not require various “public faces.” You were simply who you were on all occasions. If you suddenly changed character, it would be immediately noticeable and the subject of concern for fear you were possessed.

City life not only called for plasticity in appearance but also encouraged it. Relative anonymity, amid the throng, allowed people to be different in different circumstances and with different people. With the appropriate change of attire, attitude, and demeanor, they could even escape their class backgrounds and hereditary stations in life, if just for a moment—something unheard of in previous times.

Urban dwellers in the sixteenth century, were preoccupied to an extreme degree with dissimulation, feigning, and pretence. Shakespeare’s characters were caught up in a farcical parodying of the new sentiment as they wrapped themselves up in various disguises and got caught up in plots involving mistaken identities.

While we normally hold the notion of sincerity in high regard, it is also true that the ability to adjust one’s persona to changing circumstances and diverse others can advance consciousness and extend empathy. While public masks can be used to deceive or hide from one’s true self, they can also allow one to try on other personas, walk in other shoes and be exposed to very different people than would be the case if still hemmed in by class and caste status.

The freedom to be someone else could allow one to experience another’s plight “as if” it were one’s own and deepen empathic extension. This is what cosmopolitan behavior is all about, at least in part being comfortable in different roles in different places under different circumstances. If entered into with the notion of broadening one’s exposure to and experiences with others, with the expectation of establishing new, meaningful relationships, the practice enriches one’s identity and becomes transcendent rather than deceitful.

- Jeremy Rifkin