"Don't you? You were there; you saw what's happening. The barbarians are rising; they have a leader, and they're uniting. Every society rests on a barbarian base. The people who don't understand civilization, and wouldn't like it if they did. The hitchhikers. The people who create nothing, and who don't appreciate what others have created for them, and who think civilization is something that just exists and that all they need to do is enjoy what they can understand of it--luxuries, a high living standard, and easy work for high pay. Responsibilities? Phooey! What do they have a government for?"
"...You know why? Our rulers are the barbarians among us. There isn't one of them ... who is devoted to civilization or anything else outside himself, and that's the mark of the barbarian."
"What are you devoted to, Otto?" "You. You are my chieftain. That's another mark of the barbarian." '
---H. Beam Piper Space Viking
...Not really taken to far out of context, even if I do say so myself.
"It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value." ---Arthur C Clarke.
