IF we think of a community as a tribe of nomads, then a firm leader is surely needed. A tribe wandering from place to place needs clear direction, sure principles and examples, so as not to be scattered. The problem, though, is this: is that simile right?

Right—if we are talking of a group of clans in the desert, living in an apparently empty space; so wide, so monotonous that it seems embraced by the sky, as though untouched by histor