Do not assume that order and stability are always good, in a society or in a universe. The old, the ossified, must always give way to new life and the birth of new things. Before the new things can be born the old must perish. This is a dangerous realization, because it tells us that we must eventually part with much of what is familiar to us. And that hurts. But that is part of the script of life. Unless we can psychologically accommodate change, we ourselves begin to die, inwardly. What I am saying is that objects, customs, habits, and ways of life must perish so that the authentic human being can live. And it is the authentic human being who matters most, the viable, elastic organism which can bounce back, absorb, and deal with the new…
The authentic human being is one of us who instinctively knows what he should not do, and, in addition, he will balk at doing it. He will refuse to do it, even if this brings down dread consequences to him and to those whom he loves. This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance. Their deeds may be small, and almost always unnoticed, unmarked by history. Their names are not remembered, nor did these authentic humans expect their names to be remembered. I see their authenticity in an odd way: not in their willingness to perform great heroic deeds but in their quiet refusals. In essence, they cannot be compelled to be what they are not.
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Philip K. Dick was a genius who could charitably be described as insane. For a period of his life, by his own admission, he was possessed by a pink beam of light which may or may not have been the direct divine presence. In this state he was able to access prophecy, and save his son from cancer; he also, during this state, believed himself to be one of the apostles of Christ, living simultaneously in apostolic Roman times and in the 20th century, superimposed on one another. “The Empire Never Ended”: he theorized that we are all living in a kind of semi-real limbo, just awaiting our awakening from the limited reality of being within Empire, to the true freedom that lies beyond. That true freedom, he believed, was accessed by Christ and his apostles, techniques later lost or crushed by the Church in its cooperation with Roman authority.
He’s also possibly my favorite author. Of all of his visions of the future, some of which have already proven prophetic, he only had one or two which envisioned something positive: a kind of anti-authoritarian, anti-technological “League of Anarchists”.
He says something very deep in this, resonates with an Izhbitz torah I once read— that the commandments not to do things, lo ta’ase, are somehow deeper, and represent a purer, version of our service, though without the glory,noise, understanding and intention one puts into the active commands, leaving their doing ” less “pure.” The seemingly silent holding by commandments of refrain, when there is no external manifestation, stems from a more subtle, silent power of belief and connection- somehow more ineffable…
just athought …
pssh!
Thus spake Zarathustra! Philip K. Dick didn’t exactly invent that idea.
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[...] This next one is credited to SNAFU and Mobius, these links quote another portion. I’ve been recently in a debated hate and fear, so here’s what I quote from this article: What about the cop shows? Cars are continually swerving out of control, crashing, and catching fire. The police are always good and they always win. Do not ignore that point: The police always win. What a lesson that is. You should not fight authority, and even if you do, you will lose. The message here is, Be passive. And—cooperate. If Officer Baretta asks you for information, give it to him, because Officer Beratta is a good man and to be trusted. He loves you, and you should love him. -Philip K. Dick [...]
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