Notion. The church, or in the absence of the church, the political center, is the situs of the conflict of good and evil, not an institution characterized entirely by one side or the other. This is perhaps why those within the way of thinking of the place see places outside the territory of the church or political center as both good and bad. Intuitively, though, we think that the center is the bright light of good, which radiates outward with diminishing strength. In fact, the yin and the yang, as it were, at the absolute center are what give these collective notions and vocabularies of good and bad. The church or political center is half hospital, half baseball game. In both instances, it is the action of the place, not its inhabitants, that imparts its fundamental character. Perhaps.
