They measure rank as Mussolini did, by the amount of carpet between door and desk. - Edgar Pangborn

If you’re interested in ethics, you could do worse than think in terms of geological time.

The three billion crawl about, all over the helpless earth, destroying and defiling, killing the forests, polluting the air with smoke and radioactive dust and the torturing noises of the machine. In place of meadows, filling stations. The lakes are puddles of human filth. Two years ago the whole area of San Francisco Harbor was covered with dead fish: even the ocean is sick from the human taint, and this they call progress.

You have to fight back. Can't afford not to, with your intelligence. People hate intelligence, didn't you know?
"Depends on what it does to 'em, doesn't it?"
"Not so much, Angelo. Dream up a new gadget, they'll be grateful for a while," said Feuermann's voice. "It'll be only the gadget they love, not the brain that made it—that they fear. They may have enough superstitious dread to worship it—devil-worship—but never will they respect it except superstitiously."