Sorry, hit the wrong key. The authors are David Webber and Steve White. The quote is: "...some humans tend to believe that the further removed a political philosophy is from reality, the more 'morally pure it must be. ... influenced by a philosophy called Gnosticism, which held that the world as reported by the senses was inherantly corrupt and deceptive ... the only reliable source of knowledge is correct doctrine ... Demonstrated unworkability in the real world merely proves a belief system's 'higher truth' in the eyes of believers."

Weber & White are here reflecting on one of the most destructive impulses of modern civilization; the tendency to permit those who define themselves as being "on a higher moral plane" to dictate policies for dealing with actual issues. Gnosticism is one source of this, but not the only one. The Essenes in Judea, the Jains in India, and several Buddhist and Shinto sects also held similar beliefs (Aum Shinri Kyo is a recent example). The difference is, it is only in recent times that Western civilization has fallen victim to the tendency to follow such sects as blindly as they have been followed in the East since the beginnings of modern civilization. The result has been the creation of the modern "cultural elite", who believe they are somehow "born to rule", and are utterly convinced that they are qualified to run everything with no actual knowledge of anything. (Except, perhaps a college degree in law, political science, sociology, pop psychology, or worst of all, ecology.) I could go on for several KB on this subject, but it has already been said far better than I could, in 1959; read "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. (And pay particular attention to Chapter 7, John Galt's radio speech.)