Andy, Roger, Keith, etc:
Yes, society is making progress and things are getting worse too. Its a
raging battle. One of the problems with the kind of progress Roger describes
is that relatively few people actually benefit from it. The gap between rich
and poor grows wider everyday and those who are left behind are filled with
resentment and hate. But its not just about the haves and have nots. IMO the
battle that matters most is between social and intellectual values. It seems
that's what's going on in the world right now.
As Roger rightly points out with Pirsig quotes, the social level has been
very successful in freeing the human organism from biological necessity. Or
to paraphrase Hobbs, life outside of society is nasty, brutish and short.
Hobbs didn't mean nasty in the good sense, in the sense that Parker Posey
is nasty ;-) BUT these same social values no longer represent evolutionary
progress. Their work is done and clinging to those static patterns can lead
to all sorts of oppression and pain. If you wat to talk about progress, the
intellectual level is where its at. As the other Pirsig quote says, a
culture that supports intellectual values is absolutely superior to one that
does not. So to anwser Roger's question, one has to measure the extent to
which a society, or a person, supports intellectual values. That's why I say
this is the battle that really matters. Its not really about health or
wealth. The widespread availablity of creature comforts doesn't really say
much about intellectual evolution, but the expansion of rights and freedoms
certainly does.
In some ways the terrorist attack on 9-11 is a clash of cultures, as a war
between Islam and the West, between the first and third worlds, but seen in
the larger context, in a MOQ context, its really a battle between social and
intellectual values. The fight isn't really between two religions or two
cultures, its between progressive intellectual values and right-wing
reactionary forces. Its not an accident or co-incidence that American
Christian fundamentalists and the neo-Nazi crowds were somewhat gleeful on
that tragic day. The attackers weren't just Islamic, there are free-thinking
progressives and mystics in the Islamic world too. They were Islamic
fundamentalist fanatics and they hate the same things that Christain
fundamentalists do. There is even a guy in Europe who runs a thing called
the "Aryan Islamic Axis". All kind of interesting ties can be seen. Osama
Bin Ladin has given moral and financial support to that organization and
others like it. Also, William Pierce, the author who inspired Timothy
McViegh's act of terror has gone to Europe to speak to this same
organization. See, these various reactionary groups not only share the same
enemies and agree in their rabidly anti-intellectual views, they are
literally in cahoots. They actually work together. In spite of their
apparent differences, they have very much in common.
And the most troubling thing about this battle to me is that the attack has
done a great deal of damage to intellectual values here in the USA. The
administration's response has been to clamp down on our rights and freedoms.
You've all heard the news. The Geneva convention? Forget it. The right to be
free from unreasonable searches and seizures? Forget it. Attorney client
priviledge? Forget it. The right to privacy? Forget it. The right to be free
from torture? Forget it. The right to dissent? Better watch what you say!
I'm afraid the battle will become a contest between their reactionary
fundamentalist wackos and our reactionary fundamentalist wackos, in which
case intellectual values will surely lose.
Is society making progress? No. Not at the moment. Absolutely not.
DMB
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