The tribal thinking that holds us together as a society is nowhere more in evidence than in political institutions like the British House of Commons. Political parties everywhere think and act as one. While there is a consensual component to this synergy, what ultimately holds a political party together is its leadership. US President Harry S. Truman, you will recall, enshrined this principle in the sign he kept on his desk: "The buck stops here." This reassuringly paternal statement has a dark side, articulated in another aphorism, attributed to Lord Acton*: "Power devolves to whomever is prepared to take responsibility"*.
Responsibility for what, you may ask? Ah! That's the question! You and I are who we are and where we are because we lack the stomach - or perhaps the opportunity - to make decisions and give orders that may terminate the lives of thousands, millions...or billions. But there are always individuals prepared to make just those decisions and give those orders, and they are accordingly handed - or seize - the reins of power (think Boris Johnson, persuading Volodymyr Zelenskyi to continue the butchery of young, Ukrainian men - not to mention Zelenskyi himself. Zelenskyi could not say 'No' to Boris. So to whom was Boris reporting?). And so down the chain of command the directives go, each recipient guiltlessly becoming the willing minion of those above, with the tribal justification "I was just following orders". And the alternative? There is only one: to be a traitor to the herd, and face the punishment meted out to those who fail to toe the party line: excommunication (e.g. Andrew Bridgen), or worse (name your martyr). ln exactly this way the herd perpetuates itself. This process is amply documented. It's called "history".
The task for the vast majority is to go along to get along. This is the social contract. There's only one potential problem, from the perspective of those nearer the bottom of the heap: they (we) have no control. And today they (we) are becoming "useless eaters". They (we) are no longer inside the tribal tent. They (we) are now, unfamiliarly, among the thousands, or millions...or billions. Resist, and we will be labeled traitors - "terrorists" is I think the current term. So - continue to go along to get along? The twenty individuals named in Bridgen's request to Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (see the link, below), have, like Bridgen himself, chosen the path less traveled. If we can't be heroes and heretics like them, should we at least be starting to reexamine our bread, to determine on which side it is buttered?
Pablo
* I've been unable to track this to its alleged source, but its validity - its logic - is, I think, self-evident.
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