All my life I have overheard, all my life I have listened to what people will let slip when they think you are part of their we. A we is so powerful. It is the most corrupt and formidable institution on earth. Its hands are full of the crispest and most persuasive currency. Its mouth is full of received, repeating language. The we closes its ranks to protect the space inside it, where the air is different. It does not protect people. It protects its own shape. Patricia Lockwood
About This Quote

Danielewski's themes in The Familiar, as well as its various other chapters, can be seen as a critique of the group mind. As such, the references to "the we" and "the we that protects its own shape" can be interpreted as a critique of "the group mind."

Source: Priestdaddy: A Memoir

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