,This is an old question from the attic. Just now it randomly occurred to me to wipe the dust off and present it in this forum. The only previous discussion I have had of it was, oh, a few minutes as a passenger in a car on an interstate many, many years ago.

Anyway, as probably almost every resident of every place on the surface of the Earth knows, 99% of us, if not all of us, are from the moment we are born forced by governments to have have an official identity. I do not know what it is like in, say, Mozambique, but I suspect that it is not much different from what we in the United States experience: a birth certificate with our official legal name, our official legal date of birth, and other official information is produced and given the force of the law--without our consent.

You know the rest of the story. Social Security numbers, photo ID's, etc. are issued and are officially, legally you. You--your own self; your own body, soul, etc.--doesn't seem to get much recognition under the law. It is that official, legal identity that you are forced to take that is recognized under the law. All sorts of rights and privileges--operating a motor vehicle on public roads; voting in elections; entering into contracts; etc.--are granted to that identity. Not granted to you. Granted to that legal identity that you were given without your consent. If you do not have documentation of that identity with you, you do not get those rights and privileges in some or all cases.

It feels like--and maybe legally it is reality and not a feeling--loans are not made to people. Loans, it seems, are made to identities. Some of them are fake. Some of them are stolen. The latter seems to be a fast-growing crime.

What I just said about loans can probably be said about a lot of things.

And, as most people reading this probably know, if you want to change anything about this identity thing that you have been forced to embrace, such as wanting to change your legal name, it involves a few or even many fees and legal hoops to jump through.

I have never identified (no pun intended) or thought of myself as a libertarian or anything like that, but the act of forcing people--without their consent in the case of newborns--to have some kind of arbitrary identity has always struck me as morally/ethically wrong. It seems like the work of oppressive tyrants trying to control and dominate people, not something appropriate in a society that believes in liberty.

Sure, the practice has its benefits. Easier to enforce laws and convict and punish criminals if they have an identity that you can easily track.

Somebody is probably going to say something like, "It is part of the social contract. If you want the benefits of social membership you have to go along with the requirements--as long as those requirements do not violate your natural, God-given rights". So let me get this straight: a newborn can consent to a social contract?

But consent, social contracts, etc. aside, when the people with authority force us to have an identity and carry documentation of it, and when they create and enforce policies that make that identity and documentation a requirement for rights and privileges, it feels like you are being forced to submit to surveillance. Rather than "Innocent until proven guilty" it feels like "A threat that must be constantly monitored and accounted for".

Any newborns--extremely gifted newborns with the ability to read--reading this? What the authorities are saying is that you, simply by being born, are a threat to other people's safety, a threat to the stability of the state, and a threat to those who are in power. How's that for the dignity that you supposedly have by being born human?

How can forcing/coercing people into arbitrary identities be considered morally good/right? How can forcing/coercing people into arbitrary identities be considered ethical?