Good literature is entertaining. Great literature makes us reexamine our lives. While the is much of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep that is ... well ... weird, there are many moments that have also made me reflect on the nature of our own reality. One such moment struck me today as I was sitting and reading while waiting to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters who came to our door.
The protagonist, a bounty hunter who tracks down androids that are posing as humans, has come to doubt his job. He realizes that he is empathizing with the very entities that he is tasked to destroy. During an interactive psychic/religious television experience an old man (a religious figure named Mercer) gives the following piece of advice:
"You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe."
On reading this, I reflected on the various jobs that I have worked. Without exception, the above quote has held true. There has always been some wrong in all of them, some compromise to my beliefs or ideals. In some cases, there have been numerous compromises; in others, it has not been compromises so much as utter lack of regard for those principles. I wonder if it a necessary component to our reality. Without some external force, how would we know the boundaries of our convictions? How would we know what is essential to us as opposed to what we hold for the sake of convenience?
The protagonist, a bounty hunter who tracks down androids that are posing as humans, has come to doubt his job. He realizes that he is empathizing with the very entities that he is tasked to destroy. During an interactive psychic/religious television experience an old man (a religious figure named Mercer) gives the following piece of advice:
"You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe."
On reading this, I reflected on the various jobs that I have worked. Without exception, the above quote has held true. There has always been some wrong in all of them, some compromise to my beliefs or ideals. In some cases, there have been numerous compromises; in others, it has not been compromises so much as utter lack of regard for those principles. I wonder if it a necessary component to our reality. Without some external force, how would we know the boundaries of our convictions? How would we know what is essential to us as opposed to what we hold for the sake of convenience?
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