Page 80 - SurprisingTruthFinal

The Surprising Truth About Lying
business if The Gaze proves the 98% risk of economic
collapse? Why raise a child if you are legally bound to
admit that their future is defined by climate
catastrophe and social dissolution? Why bother
maintaining anything if you must admit that all effort
is ultimately pointless?
Mass anxiety had curdled into a heavy, suffocating
despair. The most common public admission wasn't
rage, but profound weariness. They had wanted truth,
but they had received an unprocessed reality so heavy
it paralyzed them.
Henry felt the immense psychological weight of
what he had done. He hadn't just exposed the lies; he
had destroyed the will to live.
Vincent returned just before dawn, carrying two
dented cans of cold soup he'd scavenged. He looked
older, defeated.
"I saw a family tonight," Vincent said, sitting heavily
on a discarded gym mat. "A mother, a father, two
young children. The children were crying, asking why
the heating was off. The father, a good, honest man,
pulled up The Gaze on his wrist screen. He was
compelled by the Mandate to tell them the truth."
80