One of my most formative experiences at school was when our form master kept the whole class in silent detention with our arms folded just staring ahead for an hour and a half because someone had stolen a doorknob and wouldn't own up. Neither had I stolen it nor did I have the faintest clue as to who had. Ever since then my antennae have been finely tuned for examples, large and small, of collective punishment, the sort of thing that states often mete out to their enemies or to minorities. So I suppose it did me good...


(He never did get the doorknob back, that b*ast*ard...)