Hello group,
[This is in response to Kevin's, Jonathan's and Michele's e-mails about
competition
cooperation and power]
Carmen:
I will like to add something about the competition vs. cooperation
argument /power using a quotation
from CH 24, Lila p 360, Corgi edition.
"What the Metaphysics of Quality indicates is that the
twentieth-century
intellectual faith in man's basic goodness as spontaneous and
natural
is disastrously naive. The ideal of a harmonious society in which
everyone
without coercion cooperates happily with everyone else for the
mutual
good of all is a devastating fiction.
It isn't consistent with scientific fact. Studies of bones left
by the cavemen
indicate that cannibalism, not cooperation, was a pre-society norm.
Primitive tribes such as the American Indians have no record of
sweetness
and cooperation with other tribes. They ambushed them, torture them,
dashed
their children's brains out on rocks. If man is basically good,
maybe is man's
basic goodness which invented social institutions to repress this
kind of
biological savagery in the first place."CH 24, Lila p 360, Corgi
edition.
Carmen:
>From that quotation combined with Kevin's, Michele's and Jonathan's
remarks, I conclude that:
Basic goodness = Quality = Power = Value = Gumption
P.S: Kevin, Jonathan and Michele comments follow bellow.
[Kevin:
>Pulling examples from nature doesn't too often apply to soicety
>and intellect. ...
Carmen:The previous example from the vegetation in the forest where
plants poisoned the soil to
compete and RMP comments on cannibalism go hand in hand here.
[Jonathan:
:>But nature, particularly evolution provides the ultimate answer to
:>the argument. Cooperation is clearly favoured by nature - favoured
:>:because it is . . . . more competitive :-)
Carmen:You also are right here, a switch to Cooperation is an example of
Dynamic Quality(switch =
Dynamic invention = latch). As indicated by Mr. Pirsig's comments that
: "The cells
Dynamically invented animals to preserve and improve their
situation. The animals Dynamically invented societies, and
societies Dynamically
invented intellectual knowledge for the same reasons.
Therefore, to the question
'What is the purpose of all this knowledge? The Metaphysics
of Quality answers,
'The fundamental purpose of knowledge id to Dynamically
improve and preserve
society.' From same Ch24, p. 350 Lila.
Carmen:
Someone asked before in a previous e-mail, ' Is Knowledge equal to
Power? ' (I think it was Kevin,
who asked before?). It seems to me that the line of arguments favors a
positive answer to this
question.
[Jonathan:
:>Cooperation is the means by which the weak become powerful. But
:>they only need to achieve power to enable them to compete.
:>That might just be a huge chunk of the MoQ right there in a
nutshell!]
[Michele:
:Basically I believe that the essence of power is the struggle ,
the:>fight for power, the war for
power ; but beware !!
:>War was for the Greeks 'polemos', which today is polemic, but for
Heraclitus
:>was an highly positive value in the order of the world.
Carmen:
War is a very low Dynamic Value Pattern involving the massive
destruction of Static Value Patterns.
At a Human Level 'Basic Goodness' (the MOQ) tells us that there has to
exist a better way*.
There was a line that comes to my mind from one of the movies 'The
planet of the apes', (I only
remember the spanish version, so forgive me if is not exactly the right
line, but I hope you all get the
idea:
"El Simio no mata a otro Simio"
(my translation)
"A Simian (ape) does not kill another Simian")
[Michele:
:>Maybe quality is just a substitute for power due to the abuse of the
term
:>power ;]
Carmen:
*The pursuit of a higher level of Quality is the "better way".
Cheers!!!!!!!,
Carmen
MOQ Online - http://www.moq.org
MOQ Online - http://www.moq.org
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