"It has frequently been noticed that the surest long-term result of brainwashing is a peculiar kind of cynicism – an absolute refusal to believe in the truth of anything, no matter how well this truth may be established. In other words, the result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lies will now be accepted as truth, and the truth be defamed as lies, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world – and the category of truth vs. falsehood is among the mental means to this end – is being destroyed. And for this trouble there is no remedy. It is but the other side of the disturbing contingency of all factual reality. Since everything that has actually happened in the realm of human affairs could just as well have been otherwise, the possibilities for lying are boundless, and this boundlessness makes for self-defeat. Only the occasional liar will find it possible to stick to a particular falsehood with unwavering consistency; those who adjust images and stories to ever-changing circumstances will find themselves floating on the wide-open horizon of potentiality, drifting from one possibility to the next, unable to hold on to any one of their own fabrications."

Still need to read Truth and Politics.

Eight essays to grapple with a master of erudition. Arendt is a giant and knows the western history of knowledge deeply, more specifically Ancient Greece, Augustine, Kant. She saw Western Culture, inverted commas, lay defeated to the ground together with the western colonialist project. This book was a challenge for me, it required a deep level of concentration and big gulps of air. The title refers to the gap between past and future which is filled with ritual, tradition, and culture. I must read more of her books.