The Fallacy of Magic Sometime ago, I watched an ‘impressionist’ on America’s got Talent TV show slice a man into two. The crowd cheered and all four judges sent him through to the next round. Another man (Special Head) successfully levitated after brazenly reciting incantations. He was also applauded. Bravo! If an African did that in Africa, it would be condemned as magic, which is defined as “the power of influencing events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.” What a load of crap! You are reading this post on the ‘internet.’ You most probably have a mobile phone. You have probably used email, faxes, microwave ovens, and other things that you regard as technology. You are told that these devices operate on Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Domain Name System (DNS), Static/dynamic content, Web servers, radio waves, PCS, GSM, CDMA, TDMA, etc., all of which are almost invisible. You are told these terms are science, and you believe it. Well, they are just human terminologies. I choose to call them ‘currents.’ Now currents may be for good or bad purposes. We know their many good uses. Let us, however, look at three bad examples: an armed drone takes off from a warship to rain ‘hell-fire missiles’ on a cave in Afghanistan; a ‘smart bomb’ takes off, reaches its destination, ‘punches’ through 50 inches of concrete, and then explodes several metres underground; finally, a computer worm is released into an organisation’s network, lies low for months, activates eventually, and destroys physical objects such as centrifuges. Some people that care enough call these things negative uses of technology. I call them evil use of ‘currents.’ Contrast with the ‘juju man’ in Africa that uses incantations to heal a sick person. This type of use often goes unnoticed. When, however, he uses the same or similar powers to kill or cause illness, it is highlighted as ‘African juju’ or ‘magic.’ Well, I call it evil use of ‘currents.’ My father told me of his memories as a child in the fifties – before mobile phones were ‘invented.’ One of them is of a ‘dibia’ who used to use an ‘anu-ebe’ to communicate with the spirits by holding it close to his ear. Called different names, ‘anu-ebe’ is a snail-shaped cowry-like device. This ‘dibia’ was probably using some form of what we refer to as radio-waves. As a child, I saw a man with a broom and calabash dispersing rain clouds to enable a rain-less burial ceremony. If this man used the same instruments to ruin a ceremony with rain, it will be evil use of currents. The truth is that the universe revolves around currents and people have the ability to tap into these currents. When they do, they come up with different names to explain what they have done. What we call technology, ‘impressionism’ or ‘magic’ is just positive or negative use of ‘currents.’ How dare you believe that there are simple explanations for composing a message that is received in the same format you sent it across millions of miles? If you have used things such as mobile phones and the internet, then you are a partaker in ‘magic.’ Stop looking down your nose at ‘African magic.’ It is just a matter of usage and terminology.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 08:59:17 +0000
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