I recently checked out Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces and I came across this passage:

Most curiously, the very scientist [Daedalus] who, in service of the sinful king, was the brain behind the horror of the labyrinth, quite readily can serve the purpose of freedom. But the hero-heart must be at hand. For centuries Daedalus has represented the type of the artist-scientist: that curiously disinterested, almost diabolic human phenomenon beyond the normal bounds of social judgment, dedicated to the morals not of his time but of his art. He is the hero of the way of thought – singlehearted, courageous, and full of faith that the truth, as he finds it, shall make us free.

I feel like less of a jerk now… sorta.