"In general I think - demands about the contents of peoples' heads - should be held to a much higher standard than demands about what people do. And for international politics you really don't even gain anything from it, and so demanding it is a bad sign."

"Do people do it anyway?"

"Not for international politics, not really. Internally, sure, most rulers try to surround themselves with people who are personally loyal and not just well-incentivized. And yet countries where you can't really do that for whatever reason do seem better to me - it's another hard thing to study, this is just my impression - than countries where you can."

"Hmmm."

"Personal loyalty is a much higher-variance sort of way of doing things, and that means that societies that run on it are harder to predict for their inhabitants, and that is bad."

"I guess that makes sense."

"It's a fine way to pick friends. Just a bad way to pick allies."

Nod.

"Also, peoples' values are pretty malleable. If you want to work with people who share a value of yours, you can always set up society to promote that kind of value, and then you'll have lots and lots to choose from."

Snort.

Aitim has his secret and non-secret meetings.

The non-secret ones are interesting.

And he does not feel so guilty about working late with Lintalai!

Good.