Unpacking the travel ban

What does it mean to ban travel to our country from entire nations, regardless of individual identity? It means, at core, that there are no individuals. There is no scholar, there is no artist, there is no musician or scientist.

The greatest gift you have as a human being is the ability to tell yourself that your individual life matters, that you have something unique to give, that you are more than simply a tiny dot in a random swarm. Yet it is now the policy of the United States that none of that is true.

Your belief that you are an individual is, apparently, an illusion. There is no promising musician, no aspiring scientist, no brilliant architect, no graceful athlete or brave political dissident. There is only the Puerto Rican, the Somalian, the Jew.

Whoever you may have thought you were, we now know that you are not an individual, you are merely a faceless and undifferentiated member of a tribe. The world will no longer make the mistake of conferring upon you the dignity of individuality.

Or at least, as of yesterday, that is the official policy of the United States of America.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *