I <3 how math is everything

Can we look at identity and its complexity in terms of fractals? Not in the sense that they are infinitely repeating as they get smaller and smaller, but it seems that there is no way to nail down a true identity, something that is isolated and defined by itself. The exception to this could be some biological components to identity, ie: gender and race. However these can still be broken down into the circumstances from which they emerged and the socialization that caused one to look upon themselves as boy vs. girl, asian vs. African, etcetera.

Maybe fractals aren’t the best way to look at this. Perhaps its better to visualize identity as something that is more like the way our neurons are connected in our brain. Each one is connected to many others, and though they don’t all touch and interact directly the ripple from one touches all others. In this same way identities can be seen to be not exactly overlapping, but interconnected and reactive to all the other identities that are present within the overarching Self.

Do we use identity as a crutch? Especially in sociology and anthropology identity is used as a reasoning and sometimes justification, for how people act. Isn’t identity just another result of actions of other people in our society and them shaping how they view us and view ourselves? Self-identity surely comes from the synthesis of many outside influences but the identity categorization that places us into groups of generalized others has been used many times to create broad statements about ends, but without talking about origins or means.