As with other peoples who had focused their lives upon wrongs in the past and heaven in the future, Voorstod made an everlasting hell of the present. - Sheri S. Tepper

Why do reporters have to dig into people's privacy?" she fumed.
"Communication is much like sex."
This set her back. "I don't understand..."
A chuckle. "Being celibate is often wise and prudent. People know this, but the inborn drive to reproduce makes their organs wag. Keeping silent is often wise and prudent. People know this, also, but the drive to question and tell makes their tongues wag. Sex spreads genetic material, good and bad; prying spreads information, true and false; natural selection takes over and both ethical failings contribute to continuing evolution.

Also, the people who've left tended to be those who thought man was more important than other parts of creation, and themselves more important than other men, Africa mused. "Me-and-my-image devotees. Human fertility worshippers. The kind of people who will happily kill other species to make room for more humans, advocates of the old 'fill up the world and ruin it' philosophy."

Words? Not really. Mankind is a good word. She set down her glass with a thump. Or humankind. I'm afraid we've spent a lot of feminist energy on meaningless symbols rather than essential functions.