It's 23:00 here, by the way. Tomorrow at 08:50 I'm up for work and noone knows what I posted here, sometimes not even me.
I like your philosophical take on things. You know what they say: "keep your friends close and your enemies closer".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_House Darn, that looks funny. Like almost Monty Python funny, and I never heard about it. Will take a closer look tomorrow.
Allies is the best, lot more useful than friends but guaranteed to not be your enemies and don't need the high maintenance of "keeping close and closer". The Dowager Countess is SO WISE.