“What you propose to do today is to bring civilization to a lawless corner of the world. I know that you claim more modest ambitions. But when the protection of law is extended to the innocent and weak, that is civilization. Now I hold that in the natural state, there are only two kinds of people in the world—the men with guns, and the victims. And the one kind feeds off the other.”

— Michael Swanwick

Source: In the Drift (1985), Chapter 4, “Mutagen Fair” (p. 130)

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Michael Swanwick 96

American science fiction author 1950

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