"I've learnt to recognise a certain of arrogance that sets in naturally in the behaviours of those who have been hurt; almost brutalised by their past experiences. This arrogance is a mask; a mask to cover the mutilated image that the others, the world has the opportunity to see of the sufferer and his suffering. Once the sufferer has picked up the pieces and reconstituted himself, he looks back and cowers in shame in having barred himself, and display his nakedness for everyone who gathered to watch.
He knows now that everyone watched not out of concern, not out of empathy, but out of sheer curiosity and out of the need to feel better about themselves. He has finally seen the worst in mankind; and it is in bitterness that he resorts to a shelter and emerges later with a single thought; "I see through you, I know what you are all about and I can never again be your equal. Yet you, creatures of the lower realms, have been given the opportunity to see through me and know what I was all about."
Since he will never again see them as an equal and subservience is not an option, he is left with adopting a position of superiority."
- Extract from Semi-Apes
