The Well of Uncomfortable Truths
"...Drink full, and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes, and dark within."
Tyranny lies in the distance between what people know to be true and what they are willing to admit in public. Call the former private truth and the latter public truth. The greater the difference, the worse the hegemon.
Of course, this is only roughly accurate and comes with a billion caveats. Tyranny cannot be measured, for one. But it does have a smell—and it’s currently wafting all over cyberspace.
There’s a sort of evil out there. Something very, very strange in these old woods. Call it what you want. A darkness, a presence. It takes many forms, but it’s been out there for as long as anyone can remember and we’ve always been here to fight it.
The schism of private and public truth isn’t bound to be political, either. Most of the time, it’s a matter of politeness. Only rarely is it downstream from violence (or the threat of violence)—and even then, people will convince themselves that it’s about manners, after all.
To most people, the berth between public and private truth is barely perceptible. To some, it’s nonexistent. Maintaining a facade of public decency can be gruelling, and many choose to merge the two. The luckiest of us might have never had a troublesome thought.
Be wary of prigs who evangelise about “uncomfortable truths”. By definition, embarrassing matters cannot be voiced in public—let alone ragged about. Imagine a preacher castigating the crowd for not being besotted by the emperor’s newest outfit. The nudity is uncomfortable, alright, but uncomfortable to whom?—the preacher or his audience?
The passages in the block quote and the subtitle are from Twin Peaks.