Comment From Bill Geraci
Forgive me this long comment; I'd like to spin out a tale which I hope may be of use.
I once taught a session of one of my daughter's freshman high school classes about Ancient Greek literature. One point I made was to try and explain why ancient literature (not just Greek stuff) is full of geneology lists: those "begats"-lists of ancestry.
To explain this I asked the following question: "What would you (the others in the class) do if I started beating the crap out of this girl (one of the girls in the class)?"
I got a number of responses (being freshman in a girls high school there were lots of very appealing thoughts about trying to talk me out of this-charming in their nievete). But the right one was "Call 911" (the standard number to call for the local police).
So I asked: "Who are these 'police'? They don't know me, they don't know this girl. Why would perfect strangers put themselves in danger to prevent me from harming her when they're not involved with either of us?"
In a world before "civil autorities", you got personal protection based on *who you come from*, not that fact that you were a citizen. The idea of people unrelated to you (directly or indirectly) offering you protection because it's they're "job" is a *very recent* idea.
Which brings us to Tribalism and Kenya.
Tribalism (worth determined (at least in part) based on whom you're from) has arisen in Kenya because people need help. And *now, recently* they no longer trust civil authorities to help them. Here's the key phrase to look for: "...and the police stood by and did nothing to stop [bad thing here]...."
This is the "pro" side of Tribalism: protection-if you're in the Tribe. The "con" side of Tribalism is it breaks civil society (unless you're in the Tribe).
So: How do you get civil society back? When civil society provides the protection peoples need then they won't feel the need to turn to their Tribes for protection.
I know this leaves out a lot and within this sketch of terms can (and does) contain much horror and pain. But maybe this perspective might be of use.
Bill Geraci
Blue Island, IL 60406, USA
billg35@aol.com
