The democratic lie after 1945 in all European countries and their successor states around the Atlantic understood silence as the highest principle and basis of businesses. There were few bosses, all got something out of it, and anyone who conformed a little more, whoever was silent, was not at a disadvantage. All knew that anyone who spoke was a dead man. Complicity was truly wished for, even criminality tolerated in moderation, made people guilty and validated the system in that it made one dependent on it. All took part in the intimidation and enticement rhythm, for “our business.”124
In the royal dramas of earlier ages, everybody was a small king, and kings murdered like everybody, even knaves, with the knowledge of a divine final conscience. Today everybody is a knave, surprised when even the greatest, that is, the base, demonstrates something else — how everybody would like to be, namely, kingly, divine, human, but with no chance in the crime of this world.