The thede goes on

There is something you need to know. It is called a thede, and it matters to you.

No, I have not mistyped theme, nor has my spellchecker gone bananas and come up with a variation of there. The word is thede and it means "tribe, nation, people, race." Presented like that it seems to be just another word for division, but it actually runs a lot deeper. It is choice, not restriction. It is not just where you are, but what you choose to belong to.

People form themselves into thedes. They do this willingly because, like it or not, we are attracted to our own kind, our own type. You and I have done it often, from groups of mates to the associations we form. We tend to like what we find there because if not, we gradually separate ourselves from it.

A thede is where you freely form associations to a greater or lesser degree. It is quite natural and, to most reasonable people, perfectly understandable. You like what you are, you like people who are like you, and usually you like people from the same background or heritage as you. All this means is you want to form a group with what you are familiar with and what you like.

You can’t help it because it is how human beings are. We are thede crazy, if you like.

Unfortunately for us while all this is how we are, our new shiny society has turned this truth on its head. We have people now among us who seem to think your preferred thede is bad for you and you need to have a different thede thrust upon you. Being in proximity to what you like is currently deemed not acceptable. It is called selfish and bigoted and of course, it is labelled racist. That stirring rallying cry of the weak-minded must be shouted at every opportunity, and what better opportunity than to say your thede is bad and reliant on racism.

The solution is to mix people up and hope they get along. Put people into an environment where they aren't comfortable and smugly tell them it is for their own good. You can even bring in people with a thede of their very own that excludes the natives; people who arrive in these islands and steadfastly do not wish to integrate or be absorbed into an existing society. Outsiders who bring their own language and customs and having only done the minimum to be part of it all gradually begin to demand everyone now does what they think best.

But the mulit-culturists who insist you share your patch with people who don’t want to be in your thede (and who therefore wouldn’t even acknowledge your right to have a thede) are muttering and plotting still. Their view is you are a victim of what humans beings always do, and now you must stop doing it. Better still from the stoppers point of view, they are building the muscle to insist you stop.

Your words must be moderated, your thoughts checked, your preferences pushed aside.

The result of all this is a stress that creates new fractures across a society that may well be coming apart at the seams anyway. This desire for forcing in a whole new thede is merely speeding up the cracking and causing tension. Please however note this is nothing to do with assisting strangers and being welcoming; traditionally many societies are mistrustful of outsiders moving in to their area but equally will assist strangers to go on their way, by offering food and temporary shelter. But their thede is what they cling to and the strangers, having dined and rested, will want to return eventually to their own thede.

So if we have a society breaking under this pressure, imposed incidentally by people who cling stubbornly to their own thede but demand you surrender yours, there has to be a change. For this I propose a new future for these islands.

We cannot apparently stop anyone coming to these islands, we cannot deny them a share of what has been created before they arrived with hands held out and fierce glares for what we are. Perhaps then it is time for people to withdraw into areas where people of a similar mind can have their own thede. After all, if there are "no go" areas being established in some of our towns and vigilante patrols out on the streets with gangs of people enforcing an externally fuelled world view then perhaps the natives of these islands have to withdraw to areas and associations of their own choosing.

These would be small, self-sufficient and possibly defensible areas where people of a certain thede can feel safe. There may well be trade with other thedes and hopefully offer no conflict because there is no point in trying to expand your thede as it would involve trying to fit other thedes in, and we have already tried that with no good effect. Most important however there would be no one there who didn't want to be there, and none demanding you to relinquish what you had for some airy-fairy concept. Those who do not wish to be in your thede would be free to form their own, or join with those who maintain the "no go" areas in a general, unhappy society.

You see, it would be our choice and their choice.

Eventually those traditionally of our thede who had chosen to stay in the "no go" areas and said how much they supported these no-go people and how we were all one by saying how they loved everyone and how it would result in true harmony, would arrive breathless and tearful, banging on the gates of our thede wanting to be let in.

"They didn't want us, despite all we did for them," would wail those who chose not to come with us at first, and now they would want shelter.

The question is, having given them shelter and food, would these people want to stay and then revert to what they always were, becoming that irritating worm once again undermining our thede and demanding we abandon our preferred ways for the mythical good of all? Call for the dismantling of thede borders and an 'open' society once again with all its attendant troubles?

Who knows. Only time will tell.