‘Logic is far too coarse to make the subtle distinctions life demands’, he said between Eastwood and Mexico.

So the man in the passport bureau found it much easier for the Bürger to sign on a computerised sheet of glass, then go outside his office to a huge robot which devoured the fee and delivered a chit of receipt – not for him, mind you, but for the Bürger who might add to the mistrust of the state of its own official by claiming perhaps not to have paid, or worse, try to recover some of it through tax-relief – than to pay in gold or silver hand to hand.

Remember, he might have commented: ‘Trust is good, control is better’.