The Clan

I hadn’t thought until the other day how different we have become in our striving to develop into  a nation of universality, man becoming a creature of infinite compassion to all other men, we all bleed the same type of blood ( a strand of genetic immutability ) so to speak.

 We tie ourselves in knots smoothing over the substantial differences between the  nations  and cultures that have developed throughout the world.   It has of course created a tremendous strain on the ordinary man in the street, people who are the chaff in these sociological experiments.

Why we ask ourselves cannot the people of  Libya or the Balkans not  forget their past and instead recognise their  common thread.

Of course we have little inkling of our history, we don’t understand the importance of “clan” in the web of human relationship that made up our past and made us stand out from the surroundings in which we lived.

The Clan was a living, interlinking system of brotherhood. Your membership could not be bought and relied solely on paternal links. Father, son, brother, uncle, nephews, in laws,  these were the constituents of the clan and everything  “other”  was outside, “ the enemy”!!

The reason there is such enmity between the clans has much to do with tradition and history, the fighting and slaughter between peoples who lived within a  small compass, was part of their survival  and self-preservation which still lies just beneath the veneer of the “nation state”.

Strong and often brutal leaders were needed to keep  the clans at  peace with one another but now, as we plough on with our desire to sell democracy to all and sundry, we are in danger of unleashing all kinds of pent up animosity.