Guilt -- if there was any guilt -- spread out and diffused itself over everybody and everything. . . . Perhaps at some point in time, at some spot in the world, a moment of responsibility existed.
Interpretation
Guilt can be pervasive and affect many people, often diffusing responsibility among all involved.
In this quote, Philip K. Dick reflects on the nature of guilt and responsibility. He suggests that guilt is not always felt by an individual alone, but rather can spread out, affecting a larger group or collective. This indicates that moments of accountability may be fleeting, and often responsibilities are shared in a diffuse manner, complicating the recognition of who is truly responsible for an action or event.
In practice
In a discussion on the impact of group decisions, this quote could illustrate the spread of guilt and accountability.
We are living in a computer-programmed reality, and the only clue we have to it is when some variable is changed, and some alteration in reality occurs. We have the overwhelming impression that we were reliving the present - deja vu.
Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.
On some other world, possibly it is different. Better. There are clear good and evil alternatives. Not these obscure admixtures, these blends, with no proper tool by which to untangle the components.
"Do you have information that there's an android in the cast? I'd be glad to help you, and if I were an android would I be glad to help you?" "An android," he said, "doesn't care what happens to another android. That's one of the indications we look for." "Then," Miss Luft said, "you must be an android."
The universe is information and we are stationary in it, not three dimensional and not in space or time.
A man is an angel that has gone deranged.
Tall, aren't you?" she said. "I didn't mean to be." Her eyes rounded. She was puzzled. She was thinking. I could see, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother to her.
Ah, Misha, he has a stormy spirit. His mind is in bondage. He is haunted by a great, unsolved doubt. He is one of those who don't want millions, but an answer to their questions.
In an age of relativism, orthodoxy is the only possible rebellion left
Because I have work to care about, it is possible that I may be less difficult to get along with than other women when the double chins start to form.
A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!
Almost anything that you pay close, direct attention to becomes interesting.
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