One of the most ink-consuming episodes in recent American history involved a man named Daniel Ellsberg and a 7,000 page document called the “Pentagon Papers.” The entire affair was highly instructive.

Ellsberg was an insider, and is to this day called out to perform in public when other rebels, like Edward Snowden, need an imprimatur of genuineness. His role as an actor was readily apparent when, faced with a prison sentence, he was remarkably set free due to “bungling” by the Nixon Administration group called the “White House Plumbers, who left a driver’s license … excuse me, left easily discovered evidence of the burglary of the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. This in turn caused the court to set Ellsberg free. This sort of play-acting is sometimes called a “Kabuki Dance,” or an ” … event that is designed to create the appearance of conflict or of an uncertain outcome, when in fact the actors have worked together to determine the outcome beforehand.” (Wikipedia, my favorite source of lies.)

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