Foundation’s Edge (The Foundation Series: Sequels, Book 1)

by Isaac Asimov

Many honest people believed they had good reason for wanting that which Seldon did not want. There is no point in humiliating them to the point where they can retrieve their self-respect only by denouncing the Seldon Plan itself.

Foreshadowing description of Cancel Culture

‘There is no limit to free speech within the context of the Seldon Plan.

Total Cancel Culture stance! Free speech, but within limits, therfore, no free speech at all!

Twelve it had been after Seldon’s death, when the second First Speaker (Seldon himself had always been considered as having been the first of the line) had established it, and twelve it still was.

Like the 12 apostles.

People have a tendency to take it for granted that they are better than their neighbours; that their culture is older and superior to that of other worlds; that what is good in other worlds has been borrowed from them, while what is bad is distorted or perverted in the borrowing or invented elsewhere.

Excellent anthropological analysis!

‘There are always tales and there is always a patriotic refusal to disbelieve, even though the tales are never in the least credible and are never believed by anyone not of the world that produces them.’

The very essence of religious belief.