I don't remember it getting like this in high school. Well, before I mentioned it anyway. That is as interesting to me; how immature it seemed before I mentioned it all sounded immature, trying to sound profound or whatever - space each other out for a moment! Then we got right into the heart of it - identity.
This author - Joseph VINING really has a way with words. I think we need to look at a few pages from his apology to help understand what John Booth said:
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1...ngpreface1.jpg
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7...ngpreface2.jpg
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2...gstanding1.jpg
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/4...gstanding2.jpg
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/215...gstanding3.jpg
When using the Person, then you can have the positive ID. Interestingly, when you lose the Person, your cause becomes a Class Action, according to VINING. Our Cause all blends together, like what MJ is saying - quite lucidly too. Without our identity, we are just the same generic cause - eat, sleep and excrete. If we don't do that the invariable result is death. Our common cause is to stay alive.
It is a great book but the concluding chapters - that is what I heard the book is about. So it is an apology for what MJ is saying, written from the attorney/court side of the whole issue of identity;
Legal Identity - The Coming of Age of Public Law.