I realize that for many people there is a huge barrier in the form of “the other,” someone outside themselves whose evil is unquestioned. Sixty years ago “the other” lived in Germany and Japan; 30 years ago it lived in the Soviet Union; today it lives in the Middle East. Such people find evil easier to explain by never losing sight of “the other” – without an enemy, they would have to face the presence of evil inside themselves.
Deepak Chopra – Otherness
An identity is established in relation to a series of differences that have become socially recognized.These differences are essential to its being. If they did not coexist as differences, it would not exist in its distinctness and solidarity.Identity requires difference in order to be, and it converts difference into otherness in order to secure its own self-certainty
