Currently Playing The Beatles (The White Album) By Beatles see related

A bar was a sacred kind of place in the Combine.  It was an accepted refuge where loyal servants of the Dragon, from the lowliest Worker to sararimen in their rumpled suits, could gather to relax after working their long hours.  Those who didn't join their comrades for an after-shift snort were looked upon with suspicion, and sometimes eve spied upon by the ISF for being insufficiently Harmonious.

"Self-deception is kind of the national sport in the Combine."

These excerpts from Close Quarters explain a great deal about the Draconis Combine.