On 6 Sep 2002 at 23:36, Blunderov wrote:
> [Blunderov]
> This caught my eye.
> Warm regards
>
> WHAT IS MAN? Mark Twain
> http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/wman.html
> I
> a. Man the Machine. b. Personal Merit
>
>
> [The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing. The Old Man had
> asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more.
> The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and
> furnish his reasons for his position.]
>
> <snip>
> O.M. You mean you have tried to change your opinion--as an experiment?
>
>
> Y.M. Yes.
>
> O.M. With success?
>
> Y.M. No. It remains the same; it is impossible to change it.
>
> O.M. I am sorry, but you see, yourself, that your mind is merely a
> machine, nothing more. You have no command over it, it has no command
> over itself--it is worked SOLELY FROM THE OUTSIDE. That is the law of
> its make; it is the law of all machines.
>
> Y.M. Can't I EVER change one of these automatic opinions?
>
> O.M. No. You can't yourself, but EXTERIOR INFLUENCES can do it.
>
> Y.M. And exterior ones ONLY?
>
> O.M. Yes--exterior ones only.
>
> Y.M. That position is untenable--I may say ludicrously untenable.
>
> O.M. What makes you think so?
>
> Y.M. I don't merely think it, I know it. Suppose I resolve to enter
> upon a course of thought, and study, and reading, with the deliberate
> purpose of changing that opinion; and suppose I succeed. THAT is not
> the work of an exterior impulse, the whole of it is mine and personal;
> for I originated the project.
>
> O.M. Not a shred of it. IT GREW OUT OF THIS TALK WITH ME. But for that
> it would not have occurred to you. No man ever originates anything.
> All his thoughts, all his impulses, come FROM THE OUTSIDE.
>
> Y.M. It's an exasperating subject. The FIRST man had original
> thoughts, anyway; there was nobody to draw from.
>
> O.M. It is a mistake. Adam's thoughts came to him from the outside.
> YOU have a fear of death. You did not invent that--you got it from
> outside, from talking and teaching. Adam had no fear of death--none in
> the world.
>
>
> Y.M. Yes, he had.
>
> O.M. When he was created?
>
> Y.M. No.
>
> O.M. When, then?
>
> Y.M. When he was threatened with it.
> <snap>
>
Of course opinions are changed from the outside; that's where the
evidence comes from upon which logic is brought to bear in order to
corroborate or invalidate previously held views.
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