Radicalized: Four Tales of Our Present Moment

by Cory Doctorow

I will stipulate that you’re right about everything, but this isn’t about right and wrong. You can be right, or you can be effective.

“Running headfirst into the system doesn’t change the system, it just gives you a headache.

“Think about this story, Eagle: ‘Once he was our hero, but then something went wrong with him, and he became our greatest threat.’ You are stronger than any of us, and you can fly and see through walls—but you don’t have superpowers of persuasion. The people who are pissed off at you? That’s their superpower. They can convince people of anything. And you have got them scared. You don’t want to pit your superpowers against theirs. They have the kinds of powers you can’t just punch out.”

This was an “adjustment period,” two words that sounded bloodless and bureaucratic, but which described the chaos that would reign while the unnecessariat were eased out of existence and humanity realigned itself around the strongest and brightest that evolution could select.

Unnecessariat is my new favorite word... And it doesn't mean what the character thinks it means here.