Sometimes societies die and putrefy long before they are pronounced dead, and sometimes men die of corruption long before they have taken to their de… - Robert Payne

The game of power is played remorselessly by men who have not the slightest knowledge of, or interest in, the way ordinary people live, and the ordinary people are too terrified to protest.

In the Middle Ages the king offered protection to his subjects in return for their loyalty, and the subjects were doubly protected, for the church also sheltered them. The need for shelter - for a father image that cares and will hopefully provide and give some meaning to human lives - remains as real as it was in the Middle Ages, but modern technocracy has no place for either the father or the church and provides no substitute.

At the heart of the mystery of corruption lies the desire of one man to impose his will on others to the largest possible extent.