RATIONAL RITUAL: CULTURE, COORDINATION, ANDCOMMON KNOWLEDGE

one genuinely possesses only what one has the ability to defend,”

the fundamental phenomenon of power is not the instrumentalization of another’s will, but the formation of a common will in a communication directed to reaching agreement”

A male hotel butler who in-trudes upon a naked female guest, instead of acting embarrassed and thereby letting the guest know that he knows, might say loudly, “Pardon me, sir.” Dissimulation can prevent common knowledge (Kuran 1995), but, as the examples here illustrate, honesty alone is not sufficient.