As for your point–it’s a pretty valid one. What’s abandoned are universalizing claims, as all that is universally binding is the neolib market. No one wants to say, “hey–all of us–we’re all free agents, theoretically able to enter into and leave contracts.” Any other claims to universality could lead to movements that challenge the seeming inevitability of the market, so, instead, we’re perversely united in that we all have our separate identity groups. *shrug*. I’m not doing a good job of explaining this, but I could give Updike a short reading list so he wouldn’t look like such a clown. In fact, just one book will do: “Black no More.”