QuoteBecker's central question is how many "smart" people can mistake futuristic allegories made up by pulp writers for prophesy? In answering this question, he uncovers a corollary of Upton Sinclair's famous maxim that "it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it," namely, that "it is easy to get a person to believe something when doing so will make them feel good about themselves."