PK Dick and Emerson

During the course of this semester the world witnessed the hegemonic aggression of the United States. The roots of this war have little to do with this war; yet it is important to turn to the arts as a means of understanding our world. The writers Philip K Dick and Ralph Waldo Emerson provide great lenses through which to view our current geo-political situation. Dick explores social control and media manipulation in his writing while Emerson explores self-reliance and the cult of individuality. Both men speak to today’s world.

Philip K Dick said, “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 the words.” We witness this in today’s world in the way the Bush Administration has utilized words like “freedom”, “democracy”, and “tyranny” to justify their expansionist agenda in the Iraq and Afghanistan. These...