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What If ...
| Article
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10593 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1986 |
416 Words |
| Author
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Antonio de Nicolas
Antonia de Nicolas is the author of Habits of Mind,
Remembering the God to Come, Avatara, and other works. He
teaches philosophy at SUNY at Stony Brook, N.Y. |
What if the gods
did not rule the destinies
of humans,
if thunder were not
a warning of the heavens
and lightning were just
a happening between two clouds,
what if humans did not have to join
divine powers to their own?
(I thought children used to play
these games
until history showed me
grown-ups made
their lives with them.)
What if humans were controlled
by facts from the outside,
if they were empty inside,
if it were history stringing those facts
around the human neck,
if thinking were human liberation,
if thinking could be reduced
to having thoughts,
if thoughts were reduced to behavior,
if behavior could be controlled
through punishment and rewards,
if humans could at last be saved
if not by a god at least by a machine,
the flying machine,
the steam machine,
the computer machine,
the machine with an atomic device;
and what if humans were machines,
soft wire and hard wire
made repetition and habit,
if humans had no dreams,
if life were made up of quantities,
if quantities could be given names,
if through names alone we could tell
...
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