We are all conscripts in one sense or another. For all of us, it is hard to break ranks; to incur the disapproval, the censure, the violence of an offended majority with a different idea of loyalty. ... To fall out of step with one's tribe; to step beyond one's tribe into a world that is larger mentally but smaller numerically -- if alienation or dissidence is not your habitual or gratifying posture, this is a complex, difficult process. It is hard to defy the wisdom of the tribe: the wisdom that values the lives of members of the tribe above all others. It will always be unpopular -- it will always be deemed unpatriotic --- to say that the lives of the members of the other tribe are as valuable as one's own... (originally published 2003; re-posted 06/08/05)

http://tinyurl.com/7maxt

from Mother Jones, by Susan Sontag


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp