Commentary As the United States falls ever deeper into identity politics, as more and more jobs require diversity–equity–inclusion pledges from workers, digital surveillance of private lives continues, words and thoughts undergo fresh political scrutiny, public apologies proliferate, individuals living and dead are cancelled … a vital tradition in the American heritage is no more. I mean the dauntless cry of “No!,” that defiance of tyranny spoken by a free and independent soul. You know the highlights: “Give me liberty or give me death!”—“Don’t tread on me”—“I have not yet begun to fight!”—“Civil Disobedience” (Thoreau)—Huck “lighting out for the territory” because he can’t stand “sivilization”—Kerouac and the Beats hitting the road—Terry Malloy testifying against the bosses—and many, many more. Americans have been this way from the beginning, but not so much anymore. All the way to the Sixties, the lone dissenter, the renegade thinker, the man against the crowd, the sheriff …
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