We can be Americans best if we are not Americans first.
This is a reprise, of course, of the Southern Baptist teaching about marriage: Your Invisible Friend must always come first. Have I mentioned lately that the Southern Baptists are growing more cultish by the day?
Moral reasoning entered the world as reflection about the behaviors necessary for the tribe to flourish, in the days when people actually did live in tribes. But, now, we belong to many tribes — the immediate family comprised of spouse and children, the company tribe, the national tribe — and on close inspection, most ethical conflicts have their roots in the question, Which tribe’s interests has first claim in this situation? The Southern Baptist answer — We, the people of the Invisible Wizard! Always! — is predictable, but childish. Life is more complicated than that.