> Platt said:
> Pirsig isn't exactly in love with academic intellectuals, so I guess your
> indictment of us just plain folks includes him.
>
> DMB says:
> Pirsig, in fact and in deed, has spent years as a student, as a college
> professor, as a technical writer, as a novelist, and as a metaphyical
> philosopher. To lump him in with "just plain folks" is absurd. To try to
> paint him as anti-intellectual is totally ridiculous.
Platt says:
Not only do you have an low opinion of "plain folks" (typical of arrogant
liberals) but you think technical writers, novelists and metaphysical
philosophers are all members of academe. Better look up "academe" in
the dictionary. Anyway, not all intellectuals are at Harvard, Yale and
Berkeley, regardless of what you might think.
> Platt:
> He describes the "objectivity" of intellectuals in matters of right and
> wrong as "hogwash."
>
> DMB:
> His complaints are about amoral objectivity, not intellectual values in
> general, which is one of the products of the enlightenment that I was
> refering to. The MOQ does not trash intellecutals in favor of priests,
> rather it posits than intellectual values, properly understood, are a
> morality of a higher order than social codes. This is one of the main
> tenants that you repeatedly fail to grasp.
Platt:
What you repeatedly fail to grasp is that the intellectual values of the
modern world (based on SOM and scientism which came out of the
Enlightenment) have no provision for morals and are thus in no position
whatsoever to control society. The attempt, as Pirsig says, is a
"disaster."
> Platt:
> Further, your demeaning attitude to social level values reflects a typical
> academic stance that encourages violence, a biological level phenomena.
>
> DMB:
> More silliness. The demeaning attitude toward social level moral codes is
> precisely the failure I wish to discuss. That's the problem I'd like to
> explore in greater detail. If I have any kind of negative attitude, its not
> toward social level morality per se, but toward fundamentalists, fascists
> and reactionaries of all stripes. Talk about violence. These forces don't
> just suffer from moral paralysis, they willfully perpetrate terror and
> genocide.
Platt:
Yes, I guess it's silly to bring up the fact that attempts at intellectual
control of society have butchered untold millions. Let's just sweep that
under the rug. Talk about moral paralysis!
Platt:
> 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."
>
> DMB:
> Again, this ignorance of the "social level's role" is the failure that I
> want to discuss. That's why I started the thread in the first place.
Platt:
Yes, let's discuss. Start off with Pirsig's statement that "Intellectuals
must find biological behavior, no matter what is ethnic connection, and
limit or destroy biological patterns with complete moral ruthlessness,
the way a doctor destroys germs, before those biological patterns
destroy civilization itself." Do you agree? I certainly do.
> Platt:
> The whole business 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.
> DMB:
> Um, I think you're confusing Robert Pirsig with Rush Limbaugh.
Platt
Um, I think you are much influenced by Karl Marx and academics like
Cornel West.
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