Well, it all sounds most unpleasant," Droffo said. He shook his head. "You hear all sorts of ridiculous stories; the workers are full of them. Too mu… - Iain Banks

They're on a cusp; a highly heterogeneous but highly connected — and stressedly connected — civilization. I'm not sure that one approach could encompass the needs of their different systems. The particular stage of communication they're at, combining rapidity and selectivity, usually with something added to the signal and almost always with something missed out, means that what passes for truth often has to travel at the speed of failing memories, changing attitudes, and new generations. Even when this form of handicap is recognized all they ever try to do, as a rule, is codify it, tidy it up. Their attempts of filter become part of the noise, and they seem unable to bring any more thought to bear on the matter than that which leads them to try and simplify what can only be understood by coming to terms with its complexity.

There now; cynical, paranoid and pessimistic. I think that completes the set, doesn’t it?

I imagine my sorrow for your loss will prove containable.