It's like asking, what's an impostor look like? Arctor said. I talked one time to a big hash dealer who'd been busted with ten pounds of hash in his possession. I asked him what the nark who busted him looked like. You know, the -- what do they call them? -- buying agent that came out and posed as a friend of a friend and got him to sell him some hash.Looked, Barris said, winding string, just like us.More so, Arctor said. The hash-dealer dude -- he'd already been sentenced and was going in the following day -- he told me, 'They have longer hair than we do.' So I guess the moral of that is, Stay away from guys looking the same as us.
In Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly," the character Arctor reflects on the nature of deception and identity by recounting a conversation with a hash dealer. The dealer reveals that the undercover agent who posed as a buyer looked just like him and his peers, emphasizing the idea that danger often comes from those who blend in. This highlights the difficulty in distinguishing between friends and foes in a society rife with betrayal.
Arctor’s anecdote serves as a cautionary tale about the superficial similarities between individuals involved in illicit activities. The hash dealer's observation that undercover agents might even have longer hair underscores the unsettling truth that people who seem to share common traits can hold vastly different intentions. It suggests a deeper moral: to be wary of those who appear too similar to oneself, as they may not be who they seem.
