"He can't be herded and led to slaughter."
"He can't be the master of his own fate, you fool!"
"Perhaps not. But there are people who can create, who can lead. People who pave the way and let the masses follow where they lead."
"What do you think we do? We pave the way. We make the future."
"There's a difference."
"I can't see it."
"You don't want to. The truly creative man merely does his work. The masses will follow of their own free will. Maybe they'll follow the wrong leader as often as not, but we've still come a long way in a few thousand years. It's wrong if they're led, or pushed, or tricked or—"
"Sit down, Darius. Don't move. The trouble with you anti-news people is you're too romantic. You think because God or Nature created man at the top of the evolutionary ladder, man is good, man can do nothing but move forward in the long run. You think it's a mistake for one man—or a group of men, or an institution—to channel that movement.
"But of all the institutions in man's civilization, the newspaper is the most logical one for the job. We inform, Darius. We are the essence of life. Life perceives and, after perceiving transmits information. Or builds machines to do the job. Sensation, perception, information—the same thing. We're at the top. We belong here."
"Perception should be objective, un-colored. But there's no sense talking to you."