Page 102 - SurprisingTruthFinal

The Surprising Truth About Lying
destroyed before that lie, your Palliative, can be used to
justify the next betrayal.”
“The Palliative saved Sector A from freezing!”
Henry shouted.
Vincent lowered the blowtorch, the blue flame
sputtering out. He looked at Henry, and the weary
intensity in his eyes was replaced by a hard,
judgmental clarity. “You did not save them, Henry. You
taught them how to ignore the alarm when it rings at
20%. The power is on, yes. But you achieved it by
committing the original sin: you decided which truth
was too expensive for the public to bear.”
“Yes, I did,” Henry admitted, stepping toward the
ruined servers. “And I’m going to do it again. Because
your noble purity is creating a world of functional
corpses who communicate only on chalkboards.”
He held up his hand, stopping Vincent before the
preacher could speak. “I saw them. The Quiet. They are
not brave; they are paralyzed by the Mandate. They
have chosen emotional suicide over the risk of
interaction. The problem isn’t that they can’t handle
the truth. The problem is that absolute truth destroys
the capacity for social friction, which is what makes
relationships and progress possible.”
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