In tribal societies people defended their own through thick and thin. We have reversed that process. Our first instinct under pressure is to dishonour our own society—witness the recent attack on the Anzac tradition. Accustomed to being tolerant, when problems rise we fall over backwards to understand the other side, to acknowledge its legitimacy, even at the cost of our own. But there exist ideological takeover-merchants who are non-compromisers, who manipulate our goodwill for their own non-tolerant ends, and who play for fools people who think along Uniting Church lines—always defer to the complainant. The grand mal form of this…