Things went from bad to worse unchallenged.

I found a work today that I hadn't read in ages. I'm going through it again, and I came across a quote I remembered (particularly the part marked in bold text);

"Beware of first-hand ideas!" exclaimed one of the most advanced of [the lecturers]. "First-hand ideas do not really exist. They are but the physical impressions produced by life and fear, and on this gross foundation who could erect a philosophy? Let your ideas be second-hand, and if possible tenth-hand, for then they will be far removed from that disturbing element – direct observation. Do not learn anything about this subject of mine – the French Revolution. Learn instead what I think that Enicharmon thought Urizen thought Gutch thought Ho-Yung thought Chi-Bo-Sing thought LafcadioHearn thought Carlyle thought Mirabeau said about the French Revolution. Through the medium of these ten great minds, the blood that was shed at Paris and the windows that were broken at Versailles will be clarified to an idea which you may employ most profitably in your daily lives. But be sure that the intermediates are many and varied, for in history one authority exists to counteract another. Urizen must counteract the scepticism of Ho-Yung and Enicharmon, I must myself counteract the impetuosity of Gutch. You who listen to me are in a better position to judge about the French Revolution than I am. Your descendants will be even in a better position than you, for they will learn what you think I think, and yet another intermediate will be added to the chain. And in time" – his voice rose – "there will come a generation that had got beyond facts, beyond impressions, a generation absolutely colourless, a generation

seraphically free

From taint of personality,
which will see the French Revolution not as it happened, nor as they would like it to have happened, but as it would have happened, had it taken place in the days of the Machine."

That quote is from "The Machine Stops", by E.M. Forster. I read it sometime in high school, and while I couldn't have given you the quote verbatim, it's always stuck with me. The idea of a society refining knowledge to an abstract, of stripping it away from anything that means anything, until everything is only a thinned-down copy of the world they know, and what passes for history and experience is just a caricature, their modern pared-down shut-in world pretending to dress up as something else.

You can find it here (and several other places), if you don't know it. If you prefer audio, it's available at LibriVox, too. The main character (I hesitate to call her the protagonist) is silly, but not intolerably so. The writing style's pretty low-key--the kind of thing I keep wanting to call "placid", since it's not sparing enough with adjectives to exactly seem understated. It's not anachronistic, though, and it's really not jarring; I've read more annoying styles in modern fantasy or thriller novels.

I figured I would mention that, since this story? It's a hundred and two years old.