Information, in itself, about anything, is light
As always, Tom Stoppard says it best:
RUTH: Tell me something, George. Which page is it on?
GUTHRIE: What?
RUTH: This thing that's worth dying for.
GUTHRIE: I don't intend to die for anything.
RUTH: Jake did.
GUTHRIE: Yes.
RUTH: (with the paper) Show me where it is. It can't be on the back page -- 'Rain Halts Australian Collapse.' That's not it, is it? Or the woman's page -- 'Sexy Or Sexist? -- The Case for Intimate Deodorants.' Is that it, George? What about readers' letters? -- 'Dear Sir, If the Prime Minister had to travel on the seven fifty-three from Bexhill every morning we'd soon have the railwaymen back on the lines.' Am I getting warm, George?
WAGNER: You're belittling his death.
RUTH: (Angrily) You bet I am. I'm not going to let you think he died for free speech and the guttering candle of democracy -- crap! You're all doing it to impress each other and be top dog the next time you're propping up a bar in Beirut or Bangkok or Chancery Lane. ... They'll be talking about Wagner's scoop for years, or anyway Wagner will. It's all bloody ego. And the winner isn't democracy, it's just business. As far as I'm concerned, Jake died for the product. He died for the women's page, and the crossword, and the racing results, and the heartbreak beauty queens and somewhere at the end of a long list I suppose he died for the leading article too, but it's never worth that --
(She has started to swipe at GUTHRIE with a newspaper and she ends up flinging it at him. She moves away. GUTHRIE moves to go.)
GUTHRIE: (To WAGNER) What's the name of the hotel?
WAGNER: I forget. Green awnings.
CARSON: The Sandringham.
WAGNER: Oh yeah. I should have used that.
(GUTHRIE goes over to RUTH.)
GUTHRIE: I've been around a lot of places. People do awful things to each other. But it's worse in places where everybody is kept in the dark. It really is. Information is light. Information, in itself, about anything, is light. That's all you can say, really.
(GUTHRIE goes.)
--from "Night and Day" by Tom Stoppard, 1978
RUTH: Tell me something, George. Which page is it on?
GUTHRIE: What?
RUTH: This thing that's worth dying for.
GUTHRIE: I don't intend to die for anything.
RUTH: Jake did.
GUTHRIE: Yes.
RUTH: (with the paper) Show me where it is. It can't be on the back page -- 'Rain Halts Australian Collapse.' That's not it, is it? Or the woman's page -- 'Sexy Or Sexist? -- The Case for Intimate Deodorants.' Is that it, George? What about readers' letters? -- 'Dear Sir, If the Prime Minister had to travel on the seven fifty-three from Bexhill every morning we'd soon have the railwaymen back on the lines.' Am I getting warm, George?
WAGNER: You're belittling his death.
RUTH: (Angrily) You bet I am. I'm not going to let you think he died for free speech and the guttering candle of democracy -- crap! You're all doing it to impress each other and be top dog the next time you're propping up a bar in Beirut or Bangkok or Chancery Lane. ... They'll be talking about Wagner's scoop for years, or anyway Wagner will. It's all bloody ego. And the winner isn't democracy, it's just business. As far as I'm concerned, Jake died for the product. He died for the women's page, and the crossword, and the racing results, and the heartbreak beauty queens and somewhere at the end of a long list I suppose he died for the leading article too, but it's never worth that --
(She has started to swipe at GUTHRIE with a newspaper and she ends up flinging it at him. She moves away. GUTHRIE moves to go.)
GUTHRIE: (To WAGNER) What's the name of the hotel?
WAGNER: I forget. Green awnings.
CARSON: The Sandringham.
WAGNER: Oh yeah. I should have used that.
(GUTHRIE goes over to RUTH.)
GUTHRIE: I've been around a lot of places. People do awful things to each other. But it's worse in places where everybody is kept in the dark. It really is. Information is light. Information, in itself, about anything, is light. That's all you can say, really.
(GUTHRIE goes.)
--from "Night and Day" by Tom Stoppard, 1978