The self is like a pimping blackmailing chauffeur who gets you from here to there on word lines.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that our self or identity is often manipulated and guided by external influences, akin to a controlling driver.
William S. Burroughs uses a metaphor to portray the self as a deceptive and manipulative figure, much like a pimping chauffeur who dictates the journey of our thoughts and words. This implies that our sense of self is not only a complex construct but also one that can be exploited by the various influences around us, leading us on paths dictated by external pressures rather than genuine self-direction.
In practice
In a discussion about personal identity at a philosophy seminar, one might quote Burroughs to illustrate how external forces shape who we are.
God save the Queen and a fascist regime β¦ a flabby toothless fascism, to be sure. Never go too far in any direction, is the basic law on which Limey-Land is built. The Queen stabilizes the whole sinking shithouse and keeps a small elite of wealth and privilege on top. The English have gone soft in the outhouse. England is like some stricken beast too stupid to know it is dead. Ingloriously foundering in its own waste products, the backlash and bad karma of empire
Like most qualities, cuteness is delineated by what it isn't. Most people aren't cute at all, or if so they quickly outgrow their cuteness ... Elegance, grace, delicacy, beauty, and a lack of self-consciousness: a creature who knows he is cute soon isn't.
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.
Gentle reader, the Fountain of Youth is radioactive, and those who imbibe its poisonous heavy waters will suffer the hideous fate of decaying metal. Yet almost without exception, the wretched idiot inhabitants of our benighted planet would gulp down this radioactive excrement if it were offered.
Language is a virus from outer space.
One very important aspect of art is that it makes people aware of what they know and donβt know they know... Once the breakthrough is made, there is a permanent expansion of awareness. But there is always a reaction of rage, of outrage, at the first breakthrough... So the artist, then, expands awareness. And once the breakthrough is made, this becomes part of the general awareness.
We ask ourselves and each of us may wonder: Does the Lord feel truly at home in my life? Do we allow him to do a 'cleansing' in our hearts and to drive out the idols, those attitudes of greed, jealousy, worldliness, envy and hatred, that habit of gossiping and tearing down others?
If only everyone could know and live with their inner craziness. Would the world be a worse place for it? No, people would be fairer and happier.
Ah, if only I had brought a cigar with me! This would have _x000D_ established my identity.
You try to be yourself, do only what you've always done and like to do, and right away, you're tagged as an oddball.
'Nobody goes to jail.' This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth - and nobody went to jail.
Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.
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