El Akkad:
contradiction will always be inflicted on someone else.
I've seen this person many times-they occupy a hallowed place in American culture, catered to by so many of the nations dominant cultural forces, from Monday Night Football to the Country Music Awards to the entirety of AM radio. It's the person who in self-image professes to be a rule-breaker, untamable, wild —and in the next breath sides unquestioningly with every facet of state power. I've seen the Punisher decal on the bumper, the stylized American flag denoting the thin blue line: I'm an outlaw; also, anyone who disobeys the cops deserves to be killed.
My first impulse is to mock the contradiction, but there's no contradiction, not really, because the bedrock of this particular identity isn't conformity or nonconformity-it's self-interest. Anyone who buys into both the narrative of American rebelliousness and the reality of American authority understands that both have been created to serve them.
There’s a character in the Lathe of Heaven that, at some deep level, knows that not acknowledging a contradiction helps him, so he keeps on avoiding it and benefiting. I’ve often thought that this layer of contradiction is what makes political discussion so difficult.