There Are No Gods, We Are Told,

Reason Shapes The Future, But Superstition Infects The Present.

I Think A Lot Of People Are Frightened Of Technology And Frightened Of Change, And The Way To Deal With Something You're Frightened Of Is To Make Fun Of It. That's Why Science Fiction Fans Are Dismissed As Geeks And Nerds.

People Can Be Teachers And Idiots; They Can Be Philosophers And Idiots; They Can Be Politicians And Idiots... In Fact I Think They Have To Be... A Genius Can Be An Idiot. The World Is Largely Run For And By Idiots; It Is No Great Handicap In Life And In Certain Areas Is Actually A Distinct Advantage And Even A Prerequisite For Advancement.

...[changers] Were A Threat To Identity, A Challenge To The Individualism Even Of Those They Were Never Likely To Impersonate. It Had Nothing To Do With Souls Or Physical Or Spiritual Possession; It Was, As The Idirans Well Understood, The Behavouristic Copying Of Another Which Revolted. Individuality, The Thing Which Most Humans Held More Precious Than Anything Else About Themselves, Was Somehow Cheapened By The Ease With Which A Changer Could Ignore It As A Limitation And Use It As A Disguise.

What's One More Meaningless Act Of Violence On That Zoo Of A Planet? It Would Be Appropriate. When In Rome; Burn It.