Comment: The
Mother of Reinvention
The real reason Americans detest the idea of a national ID card
by Walter Kirn, The Atlantic
Monthly, May 2002
Although the Constitution doesn't
directly mention it, Americans have always reserved the right to
reinvent themselves -- to wade into the waters of rebirth and emerge
with new faiths, new livelihoods, new spouses, new sexual preferences,
and even new names. The cult of unending self-improvement, our informal
national religion, takes as its primary article of faith the idea that
who a person was yesterday or happens to be today doesn't determine who
he'll be tomorrow. Whether for first-generation immigrants or
seventh-generation establishment WASPs, this is the land of clean slates
and second chances -- where, for example, a decades-old drunk-driving
arrest need not prevent a man from becoming President. It's no accident
that most self-help groups use "anonymous" in their names; to Americans,
the first step toward redemption is a ritual wiping out of the self,
followed by the construction of a new one.
Which may account for some of the hostility to
proposals for a new national identity card as a weapon in the war on
terrorism....
part of an Atlantic Monthly
series described as Technology
and Security, August 21, 2002
10:02:02 AM 
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