Originally Posted by Zichao

Wow. Did he really stay down there? I always assumed that it was just a dramatic gesture and he got out again before they filled it in. Weren't they also supposed to be gay lovers or something?

Yes, it was just a gesture, and yes that is the other theory. But it isn't very compelling, and rests on a search for the extravagance of the behaviour in the first place; my point is that there is another plausible explanation, and giving the incident rates in the OP, quite a serious one.

Quote:

But I think that in the context they're actually pretty sane from certain viewpoints. Like the US not pulling out of Vietnam for reasons of reputation.

Oh I'm not saying that everything they did was insane; certainly feudal politics has a logic to it. I'm just arguing that at the personal level - and this is a very personal form of politics - actions that seem to go beyond even expediency could be accounted for by the prevalence of violent trauma.