Why did he choose to plunge into nothingness, into the void of faceless faces, of soundless voices, lying outside history?... But not quite, for actually it is only the known, the seen, the heard and only those events that the recorder regards as important that are put down, the lies his keepers keep their power by?

This excerpt is from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and is talking about negligence and the denial of voice.

Explanation:

The main character is a black man, and he considers that his color is the reason why he is "invisible" for modern society. For the most part, he realizes that even History and the record of the past is regarded by the ones who have the voice, the right to speak and write about it. And then, only these events are saved and keep ahead in History.

lincoln declared that slavery should not be allowed to spread into the new states, and of course this angered the south at the time.

china unilaterally claims the entire south china sea as sovereign territory, then builds artificial islands to bolster its claim. it suddenly activates an air defense identification zone over the east china sea, and threatens to down any aircraft that does not report its position. it builds roads into indian territory, then redraws the maps to show that it is actually chinese territory. the people's republic under president xi jinping is quickly becoming the bully of asia.