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Now, as in the past, soldiers returning from war are in many cases silent, often because they have seen and experienced horror, but not just for that reason. The indifference of their nearest and dearest, and of the wider community, discourages their talking about it, even when this is not forbidden and there is no dominant thought that censors and suppresses speech. Unless they have talents as a raconteur, or have cultural means and social connections that give them access to the press and other media, they are unable to communicate the extraordinary experience: that of a tragic human condition—which is often also warm and amusing—revealed by extreme situations.