Today's Kulturkampf is a battle over the place of the victim. The deferral of violence through representation , like time and tide, wait for no man. No solitary individual, however profound his agony, can compete for the victimary spotlight with whole classes of people whose resentments, if left unchecked, would pose urgent problems to the social order. As culture becomes a minoritary province, we are duty-bound to help it lose its sacrificial edge and become the vehicle for a dialogue to which we can all contribute. Once we become aware of our own sociohistorical particularity, we realize that we're all minorities , which also means that we're all equally valid examples of the human universal, heirs of our common scene of origin.
American culture is one of different strokes for different folks .
I imagine that's why I always listen to A Prairie Home Companion while running on Saturday afternoons. No Don't ask If you enjoyed this column, subscribe to the galist and you'll receive updates about our on-line journal Anthropoetics and get Chronicles of Love and Resentment every week by email .