Unique identity is the last defense against being reduced to a living corpse

Evidence

Once the moral person has been killed, the one thing that still prevents men from being made into living corpses is the differentiation of the individual, his unique identity. In a sterile form such individuality can be preserved through a persistent stoicism, and it is certain that many men under totalitarian rule have taken and are each day still taking refuge in this absolute isolation of a personality without rights or conscience. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1016

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Interiorizing death makes it a personal, responsible feature of a unique life; Appearances are immortal while meaning is mortal and dispensable — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 542