Yes indeed. I’d say most politics today is identity politics, rather than, say, a politics that revolves around wonkish debates that treat policy like a kind of engineering problem to be solved rather than an existential crisis.

And I think it’s all about civic engagement and civic trust. Identity always matters. If I ask you who you are, maybe you’ll tell me what you do for a living. But is that all you are? Maybe you’ll tell me about your hobbies or your family. But again, is that all? Ultimately, we all have to have thought about the values that we identify with and that we want to live by.

I think in a society characterized by high levels of trust, we feel more secure pursuing these more abstract, individualized inquiries into identity. But in societies with low levels of social trust, we fall back on more concrete and collective notions of identity as a way of protecting ourselves from the perceived danger posed by other groups.