pretending the ugliness doesn't exist

[frindle2]

Hello. I don't quite understand what the underlined sentence means in the context below. What does 'pretending the ugliness doesn't exist' mean here?

(It's the novel about a near-future Australia ravaged by climate change. Aiden and Ashleigh are twins and they are super rich. Aiden thinks his rich and beautiful house is like the beautiful spider's web they saw at the camp.)
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"And another thing," he continued. "We exist with no connection to the outside world. Not really. That spider's web was there, wonderful, rich and beautiful, but it was surrounded by the ugly. Battered, nasty nature, smashed to bits because of what we've done in the name of humanity, but if you look hard enough you'll find a gem in there, hiding away, pretending the ugliness doesn't exist."
"Aiden..."
"People are suffering out there, Ashleigh, but we never see it. We stay in our beautiful web and that's our whole world. We're rich enough to make sure the real, ugly world is kept at a distance. So we can't be offended by it."

Source: Catch Me If I Fall by Barry Jonsberg

 

[Skrej]

It's a literary technique called personification - giving human qualities or abilities to inanimate objects. It's like the gems are vain people, so worried about being pretty and beautiful that they ignore anything ugly like it doesn't exist. These things of beauty are so lovely you can almost pretend the ugliness caused by humanity (i.e. destruction of the planet) doesn't exist.