Statuary

If every day a man takes orders in silence from an incompetent superior,
if every day he solemnly performs ritual acts which he privately finds ridiculous,
if he unhesitatingly gives answers to questionnaires which are contrary to his real opinions
and is prepared to deny his own self in public,
if he sees no difficulty in feigning sympathy
or even affection where, in fact,
he feels only indifference or aversion,
it still does not mean that he has entirely lost the use
of one of the basic human senses,
namely, the sense of humiliation.

Vaclav Havel

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