GR translation: better, then, “like a noose”

[Mike Jing]

P78.1-6  The old Brigadier’s age is uncertain, though he must be
pushing 80—reactivated in 1940, set down in a new space not only of
battlefield—where the front each day or hour changes like a noose,
like the gold-lit borders of consciousness (perhaps, though it
oughtn’t to get too sinister here, exactly like them . .. better,
then, “like a noose”)—but also of the War-state itself, its very
structure.

What's with the aside in the parentheses, especially 'better, then,
“like a noose"'?  What is that about?