One of the experiences I’ve had tolerably often, over the more than nineteen years that I’ve been writing these weekly essays, is the discovery that a series of apparently disconnected posts I’ve written were all talking about the same thing. Yes, that’s happened again. It’s going to take some work to trace out the connection I have in mind this time, and unpack its implications; I also have no doubt that some readers are going to be upset or outraged by what follows—though of course that’s noth...