America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- American society suppresses spontaneous dreaming to maintain control.
- In plain terms
- Control systems stop people from dreaming freely.
- What can you take from it?
- Freedom of imagination is threatened by rigid systems.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How does society limit imagination?
- Is control necessary?
Another view
The metaphor of non-dream may be too abstract for concrete analysis.
More from William S. Burroughs
A paranoid-schizophrenic is a guy who just found out what's going on.
Permalink to quote #16 Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.
Permalink to quote #18 It would be certainly a very foolish thing: try paint the Internet, start making oil-on-canvas paintings out of the computer world.
Permalink to quote #15
Related quotes
There is more than one kind of freedom... Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't u…
Margaret AtwoodMargaret Atwood quote #4 Government seems to operate on the principle that if even one individual is incapable of using his freedom competently, no one can be allowed to be free.
Harry BrowneHarry Browne quote #11 You are only a puppet. But you don't realize that you are.
Stanislaw LemStanislaw Lem quote #11