One is not struck by the truth until prompted quite accidentally by some external event.

直到某些意外事件从外部触发，人们才会突然意识到真相。

It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you’ve made, and there’s this panic because you don’t know yet the scale of disaster you’ve left yourself open to.

就像下棋时你刚把手指从棋子上移开，突然发现自己走错了，一阵恐慌袭来，因为你还不清楚自己将面临多大的灾难。