ABSTRACT
In his passionate and insightful book, The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common, philosopher and cultural theorist Alphonso Lingis cautions:
Long before the events of September 11, 2001, “we” were living in a world marked by the polarizing ideology of us versus them. This perspective has been around for centuries — remember the Greeks and the “barbarians.” And long before the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, the desire to produce and maintain the unity (and security) that allegedly comes from belonging to a community has animated and motivated much of what defines the United States — the Civil War was about many things but it was, above all else, about saving the Union. The imagery and mythology of a United States of America has been, perhaps from before the declaration of its existence, working to produce (seemingly, at all costs) something it needed to justify its future; namely, a past it never really had. From the purity of the Pilgrims to the predestiny of the western expansion, the story of America had been told by those creating a history that would lay the foundation for what was yet to come, the great promise of this democracy.
