Why a window? 2

From ban-the-bomb marches on Trafalgar Square through to well-behaved and sedate meetings in university seminar rooms, I always feel that behind any organisation someone is building an empire. That doesn't mean I do not see the need for organisations, from political parties that want to improve the world (at least in part to prevent Duffy's or Orwell's nightmares), to universities, orchestras, publishers and film companies that help us understand our world and make it seem better. There is truth in Thomas Hobbes' view of a world without a strong state (Leviathan):

'No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.'

But your views on how to exercise this strength will depend on where you stand. Are you in or out? There's the dilemma: if you join the organisation, you risk being homogenised into a non-descript functionary and, worse still, you risk lending your weight to a battering ram of the human soul; if you stay on the outside your risk being ignored and, worse still, you leave the way clear for malevolence.

It is a beautifully horrific dilemma. Crowds, groups, the mass can be dangerous, unpredictable, seductive. And blind organisation can lead one to ignore the most obvious truth, as Orwell emphasises in A Hanging, describing a man about to be executed:

'His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned - reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, feeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone - one mind less, one world less.'

When today every pillar of society appears to be crumbling, from paedophile Catholic priests (and in case you are interested, I'm a non-believer) to dodgy politicians and greedy bankers, it's easy to see why people grab for the nearest strong hand, but often the wrong people are unlucky enough to feel the full power of this tough stance.