“If some of the current politicians had been around a few thousand years ago,” she’d said, “we never would… — Jack Mcdevitt

He was usually easygoing, one of those guys with little respect for authority because of a conviction that people in charge tend to do stupid things.

“It’s all PR,” said Hutchins. “If we ever produced a person who was unrelentingly honest, everybody would want him dead.”

Technological civilizations don’t last long. You're all right until you get a printing press. Then a race starts between technology and common sense. And maybe technology always wins.