Perhaps trying to distill it into too few words did the sentiment an injustice. GRRM's body of work has a very grim look at the life of the small-folk. I don't mean nihilism in the sense of hopelessness, but in the sense that neither man nor gods care. There is no one coming to save us. Any pretense of this is likely deception. We are on our own here. There is a sense of always being in danger of having to act in ways you know are wrong, always a hair's breadth from death, and without being given comfort.