Conspiracy theory was tremendously popular, always and forever. People wanted such catastrophes to mean something more than mere individual madness, … - Kim Stanley Robinson

What kind of story am I going to give them next? Because that's what we are to other people, boy, we are their gossip. That's all civilization is, a giant mill grinding out gossip. And so I could be the story of the man who rode high and fell hard, and had his spirit broken and crawled off into a hole like a dog, to die as soon as he could manage it. Or I could be the story of a man who rode high and fell hard, and then got up defiant, and walked away in a new direction.

“We could have a contest. Who does Jackie listen to least?”
Maya laughed out loud. “Everyone would win.”

After every revolution there is an interregnum, in which communities run themselves and all is well, and then the new regime comes in and screws things up.