"You're the most self-conscious when you're embarassed, see? When you're painfully aware of how others see you. That's the basis of society, imagining, not knowing each other's perspective. Human consciousness isa big game of make-believe. It's nothing more that mutuallyfanciful speculation, and the self, consequently, is nothing more than a ridiculous illusion at best and a destructive delusion at worst. We can't know each other's perspective, we only pretend we can. That's why people walk around so terrified of each other most of the time."