Hi All
Marco, I think you've hit the nail on the head here regarding this discussion. Before I
discovered Pirsig and the MoQ I remember reading a quotation by Dickens (I think it was
Dickens - if anyone knows otherwise let me know) that said something very similar:
"A Society is not to be judged by how it treats its best members but how it treats its worst."
A measure of how civilised a society and it's people have become can be judged by how
well this principle is observed. I would personally consider both the UK and the US to be
failing very badly in this department at the moment.
Horse
On 26 May 2001, at 11:53, Marco wrote:
> As I see someone arguing that the MOQ position against the Death Penalty is not
> very clear, or (even worse) that an ethical discussion about the Death Penalty
> is not relevant to this forum, I'd suggest to reread the second chapter of Lila.
>
> Particularly:
>
> "Actually, these last two piles, JUNK and TOUGH, were the piles that gave
> him the most concern. The whole thrust of the organizing effort was to have
> as few of these as possible. When they appeared he had to fight the tendency
> to slight them, shove them under the carpet, throw them out of the window,
> belittle them, and forget them. These were the underdogs, the outsiders, the
> pariahs, the sinners of his system. But the reason he was so concerned about
> them was that he felt the quality and strength of his entire system of
> organization depended on how he treated them. If he treated the pariahs well
> he would have a good system. If he treated them badly he would have a weak
> one. They could not be allowed to destroy all efforts at organization but he
> couldn't allow himself to forget them either. They just stood there,
> accusing, and he had to listen."
>
>
> As the entire MOQ has been built upon these principles, IMO the discussion is
> over.
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