Neil Stephenson is one of my favorite sci-fi authors. I first encountered him when I read Snow Crash at the tender age of 15, and have since enjoyed Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, Zodiac, and The Baroque Cycle.

Of these, Snow Crash was my favorite, followed closely by Cryptonomicon. In Diamond Age, third on my list of Stephenson’s works, we get this awesome nugget from Lord Finkle-McGraw, leader of the “New Victorian” phyle in a future Shanghai:

You know, when I was a young man, hypocrisy was deemed the worst of vices…It was all because of moral relativism. You see, in that sort of a climate, you are not allowed to criticise others-after all, if there is no absolute right and wrong, then what grounds is there for criticism? Now, this led to a good deal of general frustration, for people are naturally censorious and love nothing better than to criticize others’ shortcomings. And so it was that they seized on hypocrisy and elevated it from a ubiquitous peccadillo into the monarch of all vices. For, you see, even if there is no right and wrong, you can find grounds to criticize another person by contrasting what he has espoused with what he has actually done. In this case, you are not making any judgment whatsoever as to the correctness of his views or the morality of his behavior-you are merely pointing out that he has said one thing and done another. Virtually all political discourse in the days of my youth was devoted to the ferreting out of hypocrisy.

Stephenson’s works are littered with awesome little nuggets like this. Part of the fun of reading him is stumbling upon these good bits, often subtle and inconspicuous, and having to pause and re-read to fully take in the flavors. I read Diamond Age for the first time nearly ten years ago, and I am still put in mind of Lord Finkle-McGraw’s words whenever our feckless political class wanders into another shin-kicking contest. If you haven’t read everything Stephenson has ever written, there’s either something wrong with you, or you’re really missing out.