Both the Oblation Board and the Specters of Indifference are bewitched by this truth about human beings: that innocence is different from experience. The Oblation Board fears and hates Dust, and the Specters feast on it, but it's Dust both of them are obsessed by.

Stanislaus Grumman to Lee Scoresby in Ch. 14 : Alamo Gulch - His Dark Materials - The Subtle Knife (1997)