“Muddleheadedness has always been the sovereign force in human affairs – a force far more potent than malevolence or nobility. It lubricates our hurtful impulses and ties our best intentions in knots. It blunts our wisdom, misdirects our compassion, clouds whatever insights into the human condition we manage to acquire. It is the chief artisan of the unintended consequences that constitute human history.”

Paul R Gross & Norman Levitt, Higher Superstition : The Academic Left And Its Quarrels With Science (1994)