Dana Shilling wrote:

Wouldn't the lie, if any, go in the other direction? At that stage, Blake is a convicted and supposedly rehabilitated rebel and traitor. Wouldn't The Powers that Be want him to feel a constant sense of guilt for getting his family killed (whether or not this had actually happened) instead of wanting him to think that his family were still alive off-world?

One reason they might want to keep up this particular illusion is as a surveillance method, I suppose. Presumably if Blake's siblings "write" to him, he'll send his own vistapes back, and the Feds can monitor them for any traces that Blake's conditioning is slipping. Maybe they enven deliberately include stuff in the faked tapes designed to test or reinforce that conditioning.

(Sorry to send this to you twice, Dana. I hit The Wrong Button.)