My fear was gone, to be replaced by a numbing sense of tedium: it is remarkable how rapidly the human mind can accommodate the most remarkable of cha… - Stephen Baxter

But Parz was better than nothing: it offered stability, regulation, a framework to live in. People gripe about their tithes—and nobody's going to pretend that the Committee gets it right all the time—but most of us would prefer taxes to living wild. With all respect to you, my friend." He bit into his cake. "And that's still true today; as true as it ever was.

The emergent humans were still animals, still bound by natural law. No innovation in the way they lived would have taken root if it had not given them an adaptive advantage in the endless struggle to survive. An ability to believe in things that weren’t true was a powerful tool.

The law is a weapon of government, not a protection for the likes of you. Surely you understand that.