This is not the first time in my life when the government told us we were locked down and not to go out of the house.
It was Sunday morning August 1, 1982, and, as was our custom as a family, we loaded into our four-wheel Land Cruiser and left early to travel into the bush to preach. (In those days I preached in three different villages each Sunday, leaving the house around 8 a.m. and getting back home before dark at 7 p.m.) We noticed that there were a lot of army vehicles on the road, but had no clue what was going on. When we arrived at our first village, pastor Gichuki was shocked to see us.
“You need to return home immediately,” he said. “There is a military coup taking place right now. Return to your home and lock the gate and yourself in the house.”
Arriving home an hour later, I tuned into the BBC radio as the Voice of Kenya had been taken over by the rebels. Comparatively speaking, it was a minor uprising lasting only a week, with 100 soldiers killed and 200 civilians, including non-Kenyan’s. It was nevertheless a tense moment that could have turned ugly and I, of course, was concerned for my wife and young daughters.
A military coup lockdown and COVID-19 lockdown both have similar and obvious dissimilar characteristics, but it all centers around the concept of CONTROL, POWER, FORCE and LEGITIMACY, which I cover in my class in cultural anthropology.
Richard Newbold Adams in Energy & Structure: A Theory of Social Power provides these definitions.
1) CONTROL is a NON-RECIPROCAL relationship in the sense that it exists between a person and some structure or system within the society which DEMANDS compliance. In other words, we have no choice, we must acquiesce. Kim Jong Un, the despot of North Korea, has total control over the people in his country. They don’t have a voice; they don’t have a vote. The IRS is another example of control. As a citizen of the United States, I cannot negotiate how much I want to pay in taxes. I may look for ways to reduce my taxes through deductions, but I still have to pay taxes or the government will seize what I don’t want to pay.
2) POWER is a social relationship that rests on the basis of some pattern of controls and RECIPROCITY, i.e., a person or institution may have power over an individual, but it is within the judgment of that person if they will respond to that power based on their own needs. The outcome is not total control but perhaps enough control to determine success or failure. The question is, how much power do they have to control?
The pandemic lockdown instituted around the world is, for the most part, contrived by politicians. They have power but some of them think, or would like to think, they have control over the nation/state/city, but in reality, they only have as much control as the people allow them to have. In the beginning of the pandemic most people were willing to stay-in-place, but over time the population began to rebel against the power of the authorities. Even as of this writing, some politicians would like to control the behavior of the population, mandating masks and delaying school openings, limiting crowds to beaches, going to church etc., because the cases of COVID is increasing…though the fatalities of the disease continues to decrease.
FORCE is the exercise of control, not power. Force does not recognize reciprocal action. The stronger the force, the more control.
As the rebels of Kenya tried to force their way into power, so, too, are some protestors in this country making an attempt to force their way to power and controlling the culture of the U.S. The coup of 1982 failed and the cultural coup we are experiencing today will also fail, but not without causing long lasting damage.
LEGITIMACY is something (people or institution) that people agree that it is in some manner correct, proper, or the way it should be.
Gaining control through force does not automatically make it legitimate. Even though Kim Jong Un has complete control in North Korea he is not considered legitimate by the rest of the world, except by other regimes lead by tyrants. In democratic countries legitimacy is earned through the ballot box. Every election cycle people of the society determine who is legitimate in making policy decisions and those who are not, and their grip on authority is as certain as shifting sand.
In the end, the Kenya coup of 1982 was quickly put down. The reason for the defeat? “The coup failed because most of the soldiers did not execute their parts of the plan, as they were drinking and looting instead of going to arrest the president and his ministers.” The streets of Nairobi 38 years ago look a lot like the 2020 streets of Minneapolis and Seattle.
The struggle for control and power in this world continues, but it’s a futile exercise. The real battle is behind the scenes, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). The arch-enemy of God is presently the god of this world (1 Corinthians 4:4) and plays havoc daily. Nevertheless, only Christ Jesus has all rule and authority and power and dominion (Ephesians 1:21). The spiritual coup d’état will one day end when “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).
