"Too many of our poets novelists essayists seem to be taking the side of the State in that ancient & inevitable conflict between the State & the independent individual.

   

      This is wrong; that is not the natural place for a writer. If it
      weren't for all these fools & fanatics running around trying
      to make things better, then most certainly things would get
      worse. We need this constant pressure against the barriers
      to change in order simply to prevent a collapse into total
      evil. The tension against wrong. To keep things from
      getting worse."

                              

             — Ed Abbey