the threshold effect

[ohgoddontcare]

"[...] it is important to stress that in spite of [my] rhetoric in support of democratice processes, [i do] not allow any political opposition seriously to threaten [my] control. There is, therefore, a threshold effect in operation. The loyal opposition is nurtured and supported because it stands on the safe side of that threshold, and the disloyal is eliminated because it crosses over into forbidden land. The facade is one of tolerance, the reality one of intolerance, and it is within that contradiction that [my] life and [personal] culture are situated."

-from so far from heaven by Leonard Folgarait

*all first person pronouns originally third person referring to Mexico