ABSTRACT
There is a kind of pessimist who believes that those who claim to control our destinies are under an illusion. There are some acts of collusion which virtually defy normative justification and which the perpetrators are most anxious to keep secret. Collusion implies that both competitors are restraining themselves. Pragmatic collusions and normative agreements have to some extent the same significance: restraint in the interests of stability. From the point of view of the arena in which the new resources are employed, an element of uncertainty has been introduced and there is a risk of disorder and breakdown. New prizes are being offered; new forms of confrontation are being used; messages are being misunderstood; normative agreement and pragmatic collusion are both more difficult to achieve; umpires find their decisions unenforceable perhaps because the value basis of their authority has been undermined.
