The necessary task of building the nation, of constructing a collective identity and shared mythology, is at risk of being lost because we grew too fearful of alienating anyone, of depriving anyone of the ability to participate in the common project. It is this disinterest in mythology, in shared narratives, that we have as a culture taken too far. Palantir takes its name from The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien, and some have suggested that Tolkien references are favorites of the “far right.” The critique is representative of the left’s broader error, both substantive and strategic. An
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