Oh you don’t have to.
To survive down there Howard soon understood that he was being prepared for greater levels of degradation.
In other words he realized the entire thing was going to be one endless cycle of pain but to get perhaps some relief down there you simply had to become more viscious than the next person.
He realized he’d eventually end up going from the tortured to one of the torturers.
Again though I figure this is all cyclical in Hell ie you start out being tortured then you torture others and begin the cycle all over again and you never find any peace, joy, happiness, contentment or love because those are the gifts of god and though he (ie God) sees what goes on in that place he won’t impose himself or his gifts on those who don’t want them or so goes Howard’s account.