"Or even if he was right, if the old powers could again be given to the world - was that for the best? How did he know that the ancients had been happy? How did he know that a rebuilding would not start anew the old cycle of wars and cruelty and woe, until the world crashed in a second Doom?" (p. 146)
Let's take those one at a time.
Restoration of the old powers will reopen great possibilities of both good and evil.
We are not uniformly happy because of our technology, many of us far from it, but we have great potentialities.
Rebuilding could restart the old cycle but not necessarily, especially since lessons can most definitely be learned.
The doubts in Carl's "tormented mind" are:
"...little formless devils mocking and gibbering in the depths of his brain." (ibid.)
A good description. If we are materialists, then we think that:
a mind is a process in a brain although we are nowhere near to understanding the relationship between them;
"devils" are not external entities but imaginings and psychological processes, somehow originating inside human brains;
"Legion" was a multiple personality disorder;
"possession" can be a very real process even if we do not explain it supernaturally or theologically;
all that grey matter inside human heads has a lot to answer for.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Of course, we have to expect great possibilities for both good and evil from using advanced technology. Something to be managed, not permanently "solved."
Ad astra! Sean
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