Definition
Complicity is the bond formed when two people share guilt, a secret, or a small transgression — something they now conceal together. Greene treats it as a seductive tool: an inside joke, a confided secret, or a minor rule broken in tandem creates a private "us" set against the outside world.
The shared concealment does the binding work. Once two people are hiding the same thing, they are committed to each other by the simple fact that betrayal would expose them both.
Why it matters
How it works
Complicity works through the in-group effect and mutual leverage. Sharing something hidden marks a relationship as special — most people are outsiders to it — which generates a feeling of closeness and trust. At the same time, the secret functions as a quiet bond of mutual hostage-taking: each person could expose the other, so neither does, and the relationship becomes self-enforcing. Healthy intimacy includes shared confidences freely kept. The line is crossed when the secret is engineered specifically so that you cannot speak to friends, family, or advisors about the relationship — at that point complicity is doing the work of isolation.