And then you arrive at the most dangerous question of all, the question nobody wants citizens to ask too loudly: if the real power lies above the democratic stage, in darkness, in networks that can feed money, push ideas, and mobilize bureaucracy to implement them, then do we really live in democracies, or do we live inside managed democracies where freedom is mostly a feeling, and choice is mostly a performance?
Performance or illusion? I say illusion.