I'm not a big fan of identity politics and sort of picking one

The words of Andreja Peji?, “I'm not a big fan of identity politics and sort of picking one thing and defining yourself with it,” resound with the cry of freedom against the chains of narrowness. To be bound by a single identity, chosen or imposed, is to diminish the vastness of the human soul. For each person is not one thing but many: a river of experiences, desires, contradictions, and dreams. To reduce this richness to a single banner or label is to flatten the infinite into the finite, to turn a living being into a symbol.

The ancients understood this danger. In Athens, though citizens were divided into tribes and classes, the true ideal of the polis was that each person could contribute in many ways: as soldier, thinker, craftsman, and speaker. To confine a man to one role was to rob him of his full humanity. In Rome too, the Stoics taught that we are not defined by outward status—slave or free, citizen or foreigner—but by the universal logos, the divine spark within. Peji?’s words echo these ancient lessons: that the soul should never be imprisoned by one definition alone.

History gives us many examples of those who transcended single identities. Consider Leonardo da Vinci, who refused to be only an artist, or only a scientist, or only an engineer. He embraced all these callings, resisting confinement to one title. Had he accepted a single definition, the fullness of his genius would never have flourished. In his life, as in Peji?’s words, we see that the richness of existence lies in refusing to be limited by one label.

Yet there is also caution here. Identity politics, though often born of the desire to honor one’s heritage or struggle, can become a prison when it demands that a person reduce themselves to one element of their being. Pride in roots is noble; enslavement to a single identity is stifling. To “pick one thing and define yourself with it,” as Peji? warns, risks losing sight of the wholeness of life—the ability to grow, to change, to embrace many facets of the self.

Let the generations remember: the soul is too vast to be reduced to one banner, one label, one tribe. Honor every part of who you are, but do not let any single part rule over all the others. For the true power of humanity lies not in singular identity, but in the fullness of being. And he who refuses to be confined by one definition walks in freedom, becoming not just one thing, but everything he is meant to be.