The Gulag Archipelago. The ruthless Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was delivering a speech at a conference. Just after the speech, the audience burst into applause.
Every person in the room jumped up and began to clap wildly. The applause went on and on. Their goose was cooked. They couldn’t stop now till they collapsed.
Everyone was waiting for someone else to take the initiative to stop. At last, the director of a paper factory finally decided enough was enough.
He stopped clapping and sat down, and right after that everyone else stopped dead and sat down. That same night, he was arrested and sent to Siberia for the rest of his life.