Crazy Fools!

 "The crazy fools!" muttered Otho. "Begging for a dictator, just because they're scared by a pack of lies".

Captain Future #2: Calling Captain Future (1940)

Edmond Hamilton 

Beware!

Beware of first-hand ideas!” exclaimed one of the most advanced of them. “First-hand ideas do not really exist. They are but the physical impressions produced by love and fear, and on this gross foundation who could erect a philosophy? Let your ideas be second-hand, and if possible tenth-hand, for then they will be far removed from that disturbing element — direct observation.

Extract from "The Machine Stops", E.M. Forster 1909

Please read it ironically