A perceptual consciousness is unable to believe that ideas can be of personal importance to anyone; it regards ideas as matter of arbitrary choice, as means to some immediate ends. On this view, a man does not seek to be elected to a public office in order to carry out certain policies--he advocates certain policies in order to be elected.

Ayn Rand
Philosophy: Who Needs It, page 49
[I don't need to point out the application of this quote in the current space-time context.--Joe]