Hullo Wim, Squonk,
Amazing to see you quoting Wilber, Squonk. I think the book you are reading
is one of his early ones, and probably the one that almost turned me off him
permanently when I looked at it several years ago.
In "A Brief History of Everything" Wilber adresses the self in Ch 9 where he
examines the evolution of consciousness. His useful analogy is of the self
as the climber, which moves up the ladder of awareness, (another metaphor
for the holarchy of awareness).
This self has the specific characteristics of identification, organization,
will or attention, defense, metabolism, and navigation.
Wilber points out that "if something goes wrong at any stage in this
developmental unfolding, aspects of the self can get damaged or 'left
behind'. This 'getting left behind' is called repression, or dissociation,
or alienation." Any such damage results in a pathology characteristic of the
stage at which the loss occurred, going "from psychosis to borderline to
neurosis to existential to spiritual, depending upon where the 'accident'
occurred." (p143)
As the self ascends the ladder, it is changed. At each rung you get a new
self-identity, a new self-need, and a new moral stance.
Both of you, in different ways, seem to fall into what Wilber calls the
pre/trans fallacy. In his words "you get this type of one-step
transformational model: you go from the divisive and analytic and rational
and nasty ego, straight to the expansive and liberated and cosmic God
consciusness. Get rid of ego, you have God." (p 151) This is precisely what
I find objectionable in the SOM/MOQ labelling that goes on in this forum. I
read Pirsig, I see the light, the world is transformed. I now see clearly
through my new Quality lenses, while the rest of mankind struggles on in
outer SOM darkness. Frankly, I find this view nonsensical and a form of
'cheap grace'. And it falls apart when the 'true-believers' examine almost
any conceivable moral issue, and not only fail to agree, but generally
attack each other ferociously in the process.
Wilbers view is more complex, more multi-layered, and includes many
variables. This makes it hard to group people into the saved and the damned,
which in my view is a very good thing. It is currently fashionable to mock
the self. Pirsig does it, and both of you have bought his viewpoint. But the
whole question of agency will not go away. That the self is changed as it
evolves is not a problem for me. That the ego becomes a problem in this
process is also fine. But the assumption that the ego is somehow wrong in
itself is just naive. Human development, in Wilber's view, is from pre-egoic
to egoic to post-egoic functioning, through a holarchy of many layers, which
cannot be jumped or ignored. "Evolution can be accelerated, as Aurobindo
said, but not fundamentally skipped over." ( p 153)
There is a more fundamental issue for the MOQ. If 'selves' are just static
patterns which are shaped or redrawn by dynamic experience, how come the
bulk of humanity seems oblivious to the light of dynamic quality? How does
the MOQ explain fixation? If 'betterness' just is, why doesn't everything
get 'better'?
How do we explain 'degenerates'? I have previously compared this with the
problem for Christianity in explaining evil, while attempting to maintain
that God is both all powerful and also good.
The mystics seem to accept that good and evil are ultimately fantasies. But
Pirsig would have us believe that his metaphysics is useful. It can guide
behaviour. He implies that our choices are neither illusory or simple. To
him it matters whether one is a 'saviour' or a 'degenerate', while to the
mystic these labels would be meaningless. It seems to me that Pirsig tries
to have the best of both worlds and ends up falling between them.
I remain totally unconvinced by your positions on this issue.
Regards,
John B
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