There is quite a lot to be said for the psychological dynamics of a partisan pathology (on all sides of any conflict or adversarial competition) that can only ever define itself reflexively in opposition to and by difference from a fictionalised, idealised and almost entirely abstract fantasy of Other. It is an infantile symmetry that finds self-expression in culture, ideology and behaviour – among other things.
This operational psychic symmetry finds itself in an enigmatic and unresolvable bind. Self-defining by difference, borders and material or conceptual distance creates a resonant paradox: to obtain the control and knowledge or closure that the pathological self-identity requires, it no longer inhabits that hyper-inflating referential space of symbols and actions through, by and as which it defines itself. It vanishes.
Consequently – all actions and assertions of identity in this context are always problematic, continuously regenerating an entropy and uncertainty by which the identity is cultivated and refined (but never complete). Any action towards control will always be accompanied by seeds of internal systemic (ideological, organisational) or psychic (cognitive, cultural) dissonance.
If, that is, anyone is interested in understanding the underlying information symmetries.
Daedelus Kite 