The stylings of Lord Immartelio notwithstanding, I wouldn't call the Lens pretentious, considering the, as the English say, "thickness" of the average civilian.On a side note, I keep having this horrified suspicion that sooner or later Big Fire is going to recruit or engineer a high-end telepath and fake the Lens effect for a terror op . . .
(This, btw, is a side-effect of watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica all the way through and reading the side mangas: you'll come to hope to see the worst thing you can imagine happen in any given situation, because the writers are good at imagining much *worse*.)
"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."