The tedious heavy lifting of cultural reinforcement

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men"

- George Orwell, in a review of Bertrand Russell's Power: A New Social Analysis.

Orwell was a hopeful socialist who believed that equality of result could coexist with freedom. It is likely that, due to his intellectual honesty, he would have dropped the socialism part for the freedom part had he lived longer. Still, the quote seems apt. I would add that it is also often the most difficult thing to continually restate the obvious. Proving first principles is high effort for low return sort of industry, especially in a distraction culture like our own.