You’re very welcome.

Peters can defend work without my help but ..

I take issue, however, with the assertion that “The laid-off blue-collar worker in America and the Taliban militiaman in Afghanistan are brothers in suffering.”

I re-read it (again) and .. I don’t see a huge problem with that.

They’re both stuck in their cultural assumptions. They don’t have much else in common but being blinded by their surroundings is a trait they share.

This impermanence to which the author refers may be a testament to the uniquely American focus on the individual rather than on some abstract gestalt-like Society or Nation. There is no assumption that those things that are good for the given generation will be equally good for the future generations. Rather, it is acknowledged that the latter will be composed of different people with different ideals and desires.

I take issue, however, with the assertion that “The laid-off blue-collar worker in America and the Taliban militiaman in Afghanistan are brothers in suffering.” Unless I am grossly mistaken, the average laid-off blue-collar worker in the United States is a generally decent individual who wants to pay for his family’s home and dinner with honestly earned money — preferably, without having to move, learn a novel skill set late in life, or endanger himself too much. These do not seem like unreasonable expectations of life. The Taliban militiaman, in contrast to the unemployed American or his own less religiously zealous neighbor, wants to hunt unaccompanied women with a rifle and blow up ancient statues that have the bad luck of predating his religion. There seems to be a significant difference there that detracts from the generally high quality of the text.