“That is the power of a symbol, Kamali. It can condense an entire philosophy, even one built on a foundation of lies, myths, and historical revisionism, into a single uncomplicated idea that can outlast the very empire that gave birth to it. Symbols are how you build militaries, how you convince a peasant to fight, kill, and die on the battlefield for reasons he does not understand, how you give him the pride to say, This is why I’m better than everyone else. Symbols are the bedrocks upon which nations and kingdoms are founded, and you have just let the most powerful symbol of the resistance
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