Article note: The tragedy of computing.
Simple systems become complex systems because they haphazardly accrete until the sunk cost is an unassailable pit.
When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.
— [apparently not actually]Louis Veuillot, but attributed to him a century before Frank Herbert did so