Lord, what fools these mortals be!
-copied from here.
"Nor do we understand any more the souls of most men, who no longer walk in awe and worship, but question everything and seek ways to bend the whole world to their will."
-Poul Anderson, Operation Luna (New York, 2000), Chapter 47, p, 417.
Thesis: awe;
Antithesis: questioning;
Synthesis: both - why should they be contradictory?
CS Lewis argued that the power of man over nature was really the power of some men over others with nature as the instrument. Not necessarily. All men can cooperate to understand and control natural forces like electricity without either harming each other or "bending" the world in the process.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I would think the mere act of scientists discovering how to find practical uses for electricity is a "bending" of the world to their will.
I have to sympathize more with the "questioners" of Earth than with those who would have us worship the world. Because I do not believe the world is a person, much less a goddess.
Note, that does not mean we should be rapaciously careless stewards of the world! I agree we need to manage and tend the planet with great care.
Sean
Sean,
Yes, "bending" is ambiguous. We certainly change/transform/revolutionize the world but we can avoid polluting/destroying/bending out of shape etc.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And as I'm sure you recall from Poul Anderson's "Commentary" in SPACE FOLK, we have reached the stage where, to avoid polluting/destroying too far our Earth, we need to get OFF this rock. For heavy industries to be moved to either NEOs or the Moon. To say nothing of colonizing other planets!
Sean
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