The mark could be anything - bigotry / bias / deceit / pride / social hierarchies / human breed. To buy means to buy friendship and respect To sell means to give friendship and respect Nobody can have a friend or be a friend unless they carry the mark of false knowledge - the knowledge of how the world runs.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.