| "In order for us to maintain our way of
living, we must, in a broad sense, tell lies to each other, and
especially to ourselves. It is not necessary that the lies be
particularly believable. The lies act as barriers to truth.
These barriers to truth are necessary because without them many
deplorable acts would become impossibilities. Truth must be at all
costs avoided. When we do allow self-evident truths to percolate past
our defenses and into our consciousness, they are treated like so many
hand grenades rolling across the dance floor of an improbably macabre
dance party. We try to stay out of harm's way, afraid that they
will go off, shatter our delusions, and leave us exposed to what we have
done to ourselves and to the world, expose us as the hollow people we
have become. And so we avoid these truths, these self-evident
truths, and continue the dance of world destruction." Derrick Jensen, A Language Older Than Words, Context Books, New York, 2000, Silencing, page 2.
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