Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups...

submitted by Mnemonic from self.quotes

“Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups... So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.” ― Philip K. Dick

Related speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LDv8fm_R7g

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[–]FormosaOolong 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Such a brilliant mind. I wonder when Amazon will delete his books from their stock for "not aligning with their values".

[–]Mnemonic[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Well the 'The Library of America' has a great collection of his novels (including the complete V.A.L.I.S. trilogy), so it won't go down easily.

Then there is 'The Exegesis of Philip K Dick' which is a monster and such a cluster of all things (reading the V.A.L.I.S. trilogy beforehand is recommended) that I'm still busy with it because catching up on the references he casually mentions in his letters are big and hard texts. But a very good look into his mind and how the V.A.L.I.S. trilogy came to be.

[–]Mnemonic[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Some more solid Dick:

“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.” Philip K. Dick

“The problem with introspection is that it has no end.” ― Philip K. Dick

“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.” ― Philip K. Dick

“I guess that's the story of life: what you most fear never happens, but what you most yearn for never happens either. This is the difference between life and fiction. I suppose it's a good trade-off. But I'm not sure.” ― Philip K. Dick

“There will come a time when it isn't 'They're spying on me through my phone' anymore. Eventually, it will be 'My phone is spying on me'.” ― Philip K. Dick

“This is a mournful discovery. 1)Those who agree with you are insane 2)Those who do not agree with you are in power.” ― Philip K. Dick, VALIS

“A man is an angel that has gone deranged.” ― Philip K. Dick