What is the “loss of legitimacy” except another word for declining recognition? The Anglican communion is facing a crisis as 250 bishops plan to boycott the Lambeth Conference and attend a rival meeting in Jerusalem. Who can say how far the division will go? Although Rowan Williams and Robert Mugabe are not to be compared, the ecclesiastical rebellion shows how the process of nonrecognition works: once the unthinkable happens once it suddenly becomes thinkable. The first person to yell that the Emperor has no clothes takes a big risk. But the 30th voice to chime in takes no risk at all.

Mugabe may be vulnerable to a kind of “broken symmetry” effect. If enough of his props go, some of his supporters, especially those who remain loyal to him only because he is a meal ticket, will suddenly have second thoughts.