—What was I thinking earlier about lunatics making their own version of truth? Why specify lunatics? - John Brunner

Don't bother explaining — I've heard all the excuses and the trouble is most of them are true.

only delusible idiots like our current chief executive can be persuaded to don the robes of high office. Nice guys don’t crave power.)

The real Earth was the place from which men would cheerfully run away to enlist as lowly troopers on a ship like this one, to be cocooned and made to hibernate while light-years ticked away, to be revived and ordered to battle stations against an enemy who might not appear, to return to mindless sleep until the time came for paying-off and discharge – most likely on some other human planet than the race’s overcrowded pock-faced homeworld.