All that fear, all that paranoia, and all of it based on a lie simply to keep convenient control of this world. Maybe there were no universal standar… - Genevieve Cogman

I think my point holds. People want stories. You should know that more than anybody. They want their lives to have meaning. They want to be part of something greater than themselves. Even you, Miss Winters, want to be a heroic Librarian—don't you? And if you're going to say that people need to have the freedom to be unhappy, something that's forced on them whether they like it or not, I would question your motivation." She paused for a single deadly second. "Most people don't want a brave new world. They want the story that they know.

And, really, Erda had put the basic problem in a nutshell. Everyone here viewed damage to their own particular interest as more significant than damage to anyone else’s. Whatever the scale of the damage.

Walking through a library—any library—as they made their way to the exterior had its usual comforting, balancing effect on Irene. It was a reassurance that such places existed and that they would continue, even if she herself was as temporary as any other human.