I had never seen war, or even talked about it at length with someone who had, but I was young and knew something of violence, and so believed that war would be no more than a new experience for me, as other things… had been new experiences. War is not a new experience; it is a new world… Even its geography is new, because it is a geography in which insignificant hills and hollows are lifted to the importance of cities.
“The human psyche evolved in order to defend itself against seeing the truth. To prevent us from catching sight of the mechanism. The psyche is our defense system – it makes sure we’ll never understand what’s going on around us. Its main task is to filter information, even though the capabilities of our brains are enormous. For it would be impossible for us to carry the weight of this knowledge. Because every tiny particle of the world is made of suffering.”
Olga Tokarczuk | Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead