There's a point where Robin is caught and hauled before his father that reminds me of 1984, when O'Brian is interrogating Winston. In both books, the protagonist tries to argue with a more powerful, more ideologically grounded captor, and in both, they are unable to match wits with their foe.

In Babel, Professor Lovell is able to defeat his son by playing on the fact that the Hermes society has blood on their hands, and by praying upon his son's own dependence on Babel. Robin is unable to reconcile the fact that he revels in the privileges he has a Babel scholar, even as he wants to spread access.

There's a great Bill McKibben quote that lives rent free in my head. When critics pointed out that McKibben, an environmentalist, owned a car and flew in airplanes, despite these things producing carbon, he points out that purity is not the point of activism - it's changing the system.

"My house is covered in solar panels, and I plug my car into a socket those panels power. But environmentalists also live in the world we’re trying to change: We take airplanes and rent buses for rallies; we make a living, shop for groceries.None of this should demand an apology. Changing the system, not perfecting our own lives, is the point. 'Hypocrisy' is the price of admission in this battle."

Hypocrisy is the price of admission in this battle. Expecting purity from ourselves is not the point, whether we are trying to head off the worst of climate change or participating in some other revolution.

So, as I look forward to the second half of this glorious book, I say "chin up, Robin". Don't expect a perfection in conduct and creed that was never possible for you to embody.