Editing Radio Free Albemuth (section)

==Plot summary==
In this [[alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]], the corrupt [[United States president]] Ferris F. Fremont (FFF for [[number of the beast|666]], 'F' being the 6th letter in the alphabet) becomes Chief Executive in the late 1960s following [[Lyndon Johnson]]'s administration. The character is best described as an amalgam of [[Joseph McCarthy]] and [[Richard Nixon]], who abrogates [[civil liberties]] and [[human rights]] through positing a [[conspiracy theory]] centered on a (presumably) fictitious [[Subversion (politics)|subversive]] organization known as "Aramchek". In addition to this, he is associated with a right-wing [[Populism|populist]] movement called "Friends of the American People" (FAPers).

The President's [[paranoia]] and [[opportunism]] lead to the establishment of a real resistance movement that is organized through narrow-beam radio transmissions from a mysterious [[Extraterrestrial life in popular culture|alien]] near-Earth satellite by a superintelligent, extraterrestrial, but less than omnipotent being (or network) named [[VALIS]].

Like its successor ''VALIS'', this novel is autobiographical. Dick himself is a major character, though fictitious protagonist Nicholas Brady serves as a vehicle for Dick's alleged [[gnostic]] [[theophany]] on February 11, 1974. In addition, Sadassa Silvia is a character who claims that Ferris Fremont is actually a [[communist]] [[covert agent]] recruited by Sadassa's mother when Fremont was still a teenager.

As with ''VALIS'', ''Radio Free Albemuth'' deals with Dick's highly personal style of [[Christianity]] (or [[Gnosticism]]). It further examines the moral and ethical repercussions of informing on trusted friends for the authorities. Also prominent is Dick's dislike of the [[United States Republican Party|Republican Party]], satirizing Nixon's America as a [[Stalinist]] or [[neo-fascist]] police state. Fremont eventually captures and imprisons Dick and Brady after the latter attempts to produce and distribute a [[Gramophone record|record]] that contains [[subliminal message]]s of revolt against the current dictatorship. Brady and Silvia are executed, and Dick narrates the concluding passage about his life in a [[concentration camp]], while his supposedly latest work is actually penned by a [[ghost writer]] and regime-approved [[Hack writer|hack]]. Suddenly, however, he hears music blaring from a transistor radio which contains the same subliminal message. He and his friends, it turns out, were just a decoy set up by VALIS to deter the government from stopping a much more popular A-List band from releasing a similar record with a better-established recording company. As Dick realizes this and hears youngsters repeating the lyrics, he realizes that salvation may lie within the hearts and minds of the next generation.