OP
Mike Boswell
Contributor
"Agencies vs the individual diver" might be a fine topic for a new thread, but wasn't meant to be a topic on this thread. However - after re-reading the OP I can understand how a reader might focus on the idea of "individual" - after all, I used the word four times in the post!
If the US is anything, it is a celebration of the individual, and that word is widely understood to be sacrosanct. Using it the way I did was a deliberate provocation to an orthodoxy that prizes the individual above the herd. Often in the US, to paraphrase Spock, "The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many."
In the US, we have been embroiled in a cultural and political war for decades, and this war is largely about our perceived "rights". This may not be the case in Canada, and indeed, many Canadian posters seem to be a little mystified by it.
If the US is anything, it is a celebration of the individual, and that word is widely understood to be sacrosanct. Using it the way I did was a deliberate provocation to an orthodoxy that prizes the individual above the herd. Often in the US, to paraphrase Spock, "The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many."
In the US, we have been embroiled in a cultural and political war for decades, and this war is largely about our perceived "rights". This may not be the case in Canada, and indeed, many Canadian posters seem to be a little mystified by it.
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