touchstone archives
Commonplaces
Piquant excerpts lifted from Touchstone editors' own reading & listening.
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.
—Philip K. Dick
1978 lecture
— Society — Commonplaces #95 — July/August 2021 —
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