Opening paragraphs..............

 

Bystanders have no history of their own.  They are on the stage but are not part of the action.  They are not even audience.  The fortunes of the play and of every actor in it depend on the audience whereas the reaction of the bystander has not effect except on himself.  But standing in the wings—much like the fireman in the theater—the bystander sees things neither actor or audience notices.  Above all, he sees differently from the way actors or audience see.  Bystanders reflect—and reflection is a prism rather than a mirror; it refracts.

-Peter F. Drucker, from the Prologue to Adventures of a Bystander: Memoirs