"Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;" Except, I guess, what the center is

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;" Except, I guess, what the center is has always been subject to discussion. For my part, I think it's a kind of bizarre imaginary construct. A center conjures the idea of some kind of shape that has an inside and an outside. That's a very weird model for people's beliefs, which are kind of discrete, non-connected, certainly not points on lines or planes. I'd go for a definition of center as, exactly whatever compromise or group of interests there are that currently rule. So, obviously, when there's a crisis of leadership, a crisis of norms, the center starts falling apart.