It had long been established in the Civil Worlds that public business was to be transparent, and personal business opaque; but it was as well recognised that the two would always have a turbulent interface, and that the clique, the caucus, and the conspiracy were as ineradicable features of civility as the council or the committee.
It is the shared bad faith by which individuals help each other sustain the illusion that they can shirk their spiritual destiny by joining the public.