> Platt asked:
> Am I correct in concluding that you believe the intellectual level consists
> of college professors and academic papers? God help us all if that is the
> case.
>
> DMB says:
> Well, it does seem that intellectual vaules are very likely to be found in
> highly educated people and in scholarly work. It is also interesting to
> note that people who are dominated by social level values tend to be
> hostile to intellectuals and intellectual values. Such people tend to
> exhibit anti-intellectual attitudes, sometimes even to the point of
> outrageous violence.
Platt responds:
Pirsig isn't exactly in love with academic intellectuals, so I guess your
indictment of us just plain folks includes him. He describes the
"objectivity" of intellectuals in matters of right and wrong as "hogwash."
Further, your demeaning attitude to social level values reflects a typical
academic stance that encourages violence, a biological level
phenomena. Pirsig made this clear throughout Chap. 24 and when he
said, "Today we are living in an intellectual and technological paradise
and a moral and social nightmare because the intellectual level of
evolution, in its struggle to become free of the social level, has ignored
the social level's role in keeping the biological level under control." The
whole business about the values of political correctness, multiculturism
and diversity that academic intellectuals spout with frequent and
arrogant certitude Pirsig rightly calls "paralysis." That's why I say if
intellectual values are to be found solely in academe, God help us all.
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