But the other vitality is still there, that rancorous, sardonic, wonderful insistence on the right to dissent, to question, to object, to raise holy hell and, in direst extremity, to laugh the self-appointed squad leaders off the face of the earth with great whoops of dirty, disdainful glee. Suppress friction and a machine runs fine. Suppress friction, and a society runs down.

John D. MacDonald (1916–1986) American author
A Deadly Shade of Gold (1965)