Anyone who has ever lived in a small town can tell you the meaning of MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction. At the height of the Cold War, it was MAD that kept the United States and the Soviet Union from blowing each other to bits. You unleash a nuclear weapon on me, and I'll push a button that will send your way an equally devastating nuclear weapon.

It is this same MAD-ness – Mutually Assured Destruction – that keeps every small town together. There are no secrets in small towns. When everybody knows everything about everybody, MAD keeps it all together. You tell on me, and I'll tell on you. So no one tells. Everyone lives and lets live. The Madness of small town life is a portent of the future, where there will no secrets about anything.

On top of being able to keep secrets, small towns…