A Candle in the Dark

[farrandy]

     "Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us--then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.
     The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles.  Darkness gathers.  The demons begin to stir."

-----Carl Sagan  The Demon-Haunted World:  Science as a Candle in the Dark