The whole system is powered by energy from the sun, and the moon reminds us of the unfortunate propensity of man for lunacy. By lunacy I do not mean that which afflicts the occupants of the 125,000 mental hospital beds in Britain. I mean his tendency to infantile behaviour, to embrace and act out irrational beliefs and idiotic ideas. This form of lunacy from time to time afflicts us all and is a condition from which no social class or group, however privileged or academic, is entirely free.

Once a government resorts to terror against its own population to get what it wants, it must keep using terror against its own population to get what it wants. A government that terrorizes its own people can never stop. If such a government ever lets the fear subside and rational thought return to the populace, that government is finished.

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creeds into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.

Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared to the gradual encroachment of ideas. Not, indeed, immediately, but after a certain interval; for in the field of economic and political philosophy there are not many who are influenced by new theories after they are 25 or 30 years of age, so that the ideas which civil servants and politicians and even agitators apply to current events are not likely to be the newest. But, soon or late, it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.

Intelligence is the capacity to receive, decode and transmit information efficiently. Stupidity is blockage of this process at any point. Bigotry, ideologies etc. block the ability to receive; robotic reality-tunnels block the ability to decode or integrate new signals; censorship blocks transmission.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

The conceptual perspective of sapiens is built up to a great extent by his beliefs, for when man believes something with sufficient certainty, he confers on these beliefs the category of knowledge, which in the majority of cases are only a reflection of his opinions, hopes, likes, or dislikes.

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.