The Turning Wheel

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"The Turning Wheel" is a novelette by American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. It was published in Science Fiction Stories No. 2, 1954.[1][2]

The story is set in a post-apocalyptic future where global civilization is governed by a hierarchical, religious society centered on belief in karmic based reincarnation metaphorically viewed as moving forward or backward on a turning wheel.

The society presented is class driven, apparently with Caucasians ("Caucs") at the bottom, and Asians and Indians at the top. Above all is the god/messiah, the Bard "Elron Hu" (that is to say, "Elron Hu, Bard"), whose spiritual plan involves one becoming "clear" - an obvious jab at L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics, the self-help book that had been released a few years before.

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