“The way the world worked, once the word was out, the effect would take on exhaustibility. There was always not merely the event itself, but opinion of the event, and rebuttal of the opinion, and the ready charge of self-interest, and the countercharge. There was the analysis of the event, and the excavation of the root causes of the event, and the placement of the event in the correct historical context. Everyone would want to kick the can, and it would clatter over the cobblestones interminably, far from the toes of those who’d first impelled it.”

— Algis Budrys , book Michaelmas

Source: Michaelmas (1977), Chapter 10 (p. 153)

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Algis Budrys 44

American writer 1931–2008

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