Which came first, the mind or the idea of the mind? Have you never wondered? They arrived together. The mind is an idea.
Bernard BeckettIn this environment it was a simple matter for The Republic to maintain its structure. People did as they were told because they were working together, focused on a common threat, a shared enemy. But time passes. Fear becomes a memory. Terror becomes routine; it loses its grip.
Bernard BeckettScience is a little bit more than a wonderful way of modelling and predicting; its a wonderful technical abstraction. I think science is a really wonderful technical abstraction.
Bernard BeckettThe more the media peddled fear, the more the people lost the ability to believe in one another. For every new ill that befell them, the media created an explanation, and the explanation always had a face and a name. The people came to fear even their closest neighbors. At the level of the individual, the community, and the nation, people sought signs of othersโ ill intentions; and everywhere they looked, they found them, for this is what looking does.
Bernard Beckett