Indeed, the moral undermining of the moral worth of persons in late modern societies is highlighted within contemporary American democracy through the emergence and proliferation of identity groups–those groups around which contemporary identity politics are built. Identity groups are, in effect, compensatory. Against the backdrop I have described, such groups represent a means to power and influence in a world that has rendered average citizens powerless over the conditions of their existence, an assertion of distinctiveness in a world that tends to flatten or level all meaningful differences, the possibility for meaningful belief and purpose in a world that denies ultimate meaning and renders most beliefs a matter of mere taste, an anchor of certainty in a world of contingency, a way of belonging in a world that atomizes our existence even as it weakens the ties of local and organic community, a heartfelt plea for recognition and dignity it confers in a world that cares very little for the individual personally and cares for you publicly only insofar as you perform the role that you play, and the hope of living a meaningful and significant life, a life that matters, in a world that makes most of us feel our lives are insignificant and inconsequential. In sum, identity groups are compensatory networks that emerge in response to the dehumanization endemic to the modern and late modern world.
James Davison Hunter, Democracy and Solidarity, 320.