the V.R.5 collapse: caught young, before the questions grow claws
This was why they started us here so young: to give ourselves away before the age when the questions why and to what grow real beaks and claws. It was kind, in a way.
Context
The institution's deepest rationale surfaces in the panic. E.T.A. takes them "so young" on purpose — to secure the body's total devotion "before the age when the questions why and to what grow real beaks and claws," before the mind can ask what all the drilling is for. Hal calls it "kind," and means it: the academy spares its players his exact predicament by capturing them a step ahead of the doubt. Give yourself away to the regimen before you're old enough to wonder whether you should.