Well, the downpour of freezing rain has begun, so I'd best get something posted before the power inevitably goes out. Here's hoping that's a reverse jinx*.
'Are we humans, or are we dancing?' The radio station my coworkers seemed to have settled on keeps playing the song that line is from, and it keeps gnawing at me, so here we are.
Seems like a false dichotomy. I mean, does it really have to be one or the other? Can you switch back and forth, so that you're dancing, then you stop and you're human again? Is there a lag time, where you have to cool down for awhile before you become human again? Why is dancing considered inhuman?
If, as I saw described online, "dancing" refers to us being controlled by forces beyond our control, versus being humans with free will, well then I continue to question why use dancing. The song asks if we're a noun, or a verb, and those are the only two options. Adjectives demand representation! They suggest 'Are we human, are we dancing, or are we squishy?'
In a somewhat more serious vein, I do get the idea that when one dances, they move in a manner at least partially dictated by the music or rhythm that's being played, and thus, are relinquishing control of themselves to something else. That's all well and good, but dancing is also a form of individual artistic expression, is it not? And individual expression would be an attribute of a free-thinking, independent "human", right? Perhaps, "puppets" would have worked better, though I suppose that would be rather cliched.
* A jinx is when you say something you hope will come true, but now you've ensured it won't, right? So that was really just a jinx, wasn't it? Sure, I'm saying something I don't want to happen will, but I'm still expecting that expressing confidence it will happen will cause it not to occur.
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