Reading this thread over the past few days reinforces a concern that I have had for quite swome time. Theso-called terrorists have not and will not succeed in destabilizing our country directly, but I am beginning to fear that they will force a crisis in our national character with as yet unforseeable consequences. Let me explain.

There is an aspect of our national character that exists nowhere else in the world. It is a strain of individualism that begins with the renegades that founded this country and runs through our art, literature, popular culture -- everything. From James Fenemore Cooper to the legends of the trappers, to cowboys, to the modern era a lone-wolf cops, it is a romanticism of radical individualism that pervades everything. The servivalist branch of this forum's devotees is another example - the misguided notion that if everything goes to hell, one can just go one's own way.

The conflict is that we are really terribly social people. Most people are not loners, individualists, or renegades, or if they do fancy themselves as such, they do so within the confines of a renegade convention. For example, if you want to be a punker, you best adhere to the punker fashions in or to fit in. Lets face it, most American fail pretty dismally in the true individualist department. Those who really are individualists are generally mistrusted, feared, or ridiculed. That conventionality leads to our great strength. The "greatest generation" that waged our last world war so effectively was so effective precisely because they pulled together so well when the chips were down.

So, we have an inherent conflict between our two natures, the individual and social being. We can't stand to be thought of as conformists in a very profound way that is alien to most europeans, and certainly to most all orientals. But it is more than just a pretense -- it is so internalized that the idea of somebody digging through our stuff at checkpoints, indeed, the very idea of checkpoints, offends us deeply -- me too. But the stringth of the nation lies in our ability to focus our combined might against a common enemy.

And this series of posts in this thread shows how it is deviding us, and alienating us from our government. I don't have an answer. I can't change my nature, either, and I can't start trusting my goverment because I've seen to much. But, maybe if we recognize the conflict in our nature, we can begin to resolve it.