If

 

If Auschwitz had been in Hampshire

 

There would have been Englishmen to guard it

 

To administer records

 

Marshall transports

 

Work the gas ovens

 

And keep silent

 

The smoke would have drifted over these green hills

 

It’s not that all men are evil or creatures of instinct

 

We – even our subjective self – are products of history

 

Of political change

 

In history two things join

 

Our will and things beyond our will

 

We change what we are as a means of controlling these things

 

That is: we create a new culture

 

We remain human only by changing

 

Each generation must create its own humanity

 

And the smoke will drift over these green hills

 

Our culture makes us barbarians

 

It does not allow us to live humanely

 

We must create a new culture

 

Or cease to be human

 

- Edward Bond