Philip K. Dick? He's all about that sort of thing; how people have become tragically alienated from humanity, especially their own.

M's exchange is remarkable in the fact that it takes place, not in a professional, progressive, politically correct setting, like a workplace. Rather that it happens in a (presumably) intimate, private environment between one "close friend" and another.

This "Dr." is such a thorough-going professional that she can no longer express herself as an normal human being, rather than something inhuman and somewhat sinister; a machine, regarding ordinary human facts of life and biology, in confidence to a chum. The tragedy is in the fact that there's no longer any real difference between the two; when it comes to who your friends are, everyone is like that.

By contrast, Deeney rejects the idea that representatives of the political/corporate "machine" (celebrities, colleagues) can be more suitable role models than actual biological, socially-contracted examples, like parents, children, family; even friends. Although, he does weaken his argument by framing this "biological, socially-contracted" obligation as "work": "If my kids look up to a man bigger and better than me, then that’s me not doing my job."


Quote Originally Posted by IUFG View Post
Sounds like exactly the type of person one doesn't need or want as a friend. Never mind a close one.