the Separatism seminar: Gentle's manufactured-enemy theory, and its backfire — "a nice little irony to Gentle’s…"
a nice little irony to Gentle’s strategy ending up bringing Canada together at our expense, when it was pretty obviously meant to bring us together at Canada’s expense
Context
Orin names the founding doctrine (081/086's "cohesion-renewing Other") as a working theory — "find-an-enemy-for-a-divided-nation-to-come-together-by-blaming-and-hating" — and Hal supplies its ironic reversal: Gentle's manufactured enemy "end[ed] up bringing Canada together at our expense, when it was pretty obviously meant to bring us together at Canada's expense." The experialist scapegoat-machine ran backward — the nation Gentle chose as the hateable Other cohered against him. The theme's own diagnostic tool (manufacture an enemy) is shown misfiring on its author.