Hello everyone
Bill writes:
>Hi Glove (and others),
>
>I've been thinking about what you wrote; this in particular:
>
>"….As population grows, so does social unrest. Here in the United States,
our
>prisons are overflowing and the only answer that is given is to build more
>prisons. This is not an intellectual answer as a vaccine against the AIDS
virus would be.
>……I seem to sense some great changes coming, but these changes will not be
>made without a total breakdown of society as we understand it today..."
>
>As Pirsig notes, the different levels (in this case biological and social)
don't much resemble one another. Thus a social prescription or "vaccine",
such as building more prisons, doesn't really seem to fix the underlying
problem. Government sometimes tries this and loads up the social syringe
with $$$; but all it usually achieves is the momentary numbing of pain which
masks the real problem.
>
>The intellectual solution for all of these social problems is actually well
known, although the people who put this into effect aren't always the
skilled social medics they could be. So what's the intellectual solution?
>One of the guys on my crew knows the answer quite well. When one of us
says or does something that he finds to be deviant, he'll shake his head and
say; "I think you need some counseling". This counseling has long been used
by individuals to help others rise up from the clouds of emotional/social
imperfection. The right application of intellect (along with helpful
biological cures) will raise most people up to a functional level that keeps
them out of trouble with the rest of the group.
>
>Intellect, which in India's Sankhya philosophy is called buddhi, is the
natural movement of a calm mind toward truth. Buddhi isn't limited to
rationality in the western sense but also includes intuitive movements of
the calm mind toward truth. A good councilor helps a person clouded by
emotional/social problems to move their mind free of those static
containment's toward a state of clarity that is energizing. They point out
truths or demonstrate the points at which their clients are stuck in static
framework. So a councilor is a facilitator of DQ for a stuck person. They
demonstrate the way out of the South Indian monkey trap! And often the
technique for getting free is remembered by the client.
>
>This is the way people have always done it. The problem is that the ratio
of good councilors to people who are stuck, is not good. And as Pirsig
said, those councilors don't work for free! They require a lot of scrilla
(scrilla means $$$ in the language being taught to me by my young inter-city
apprentices). Some of the old-time liberals sort of understood this and got
government to pump a lot of money in this direction. But there was another
problem. Not enough really good councilors. Not that the councilors
weren't sincere, just that they themselves weren't expert in the use of
buddhi. So they could only do a little and when the conservatives started
to see the return on their tax dollars, they revolted. So today in the
U.S., we've slid back to the less dynamic approach of just building more
prisons. I'd personally like to see people not let out of prisons until
they receive the benefits of good counseling. But as both good councilors
and the money to pay for them! > are in short supply, this is a solution for
another time (my specialty!).
Glove:
You make some very excellent points, Bill. All of which I agree with.
>Bill:
>
>But I see some good stuff going on too. There are a lot of good public
service ads these days that provide decent counseling for not too much
money. I see this as being toward a good solution. But of course, I would
*love* to have the money to produce some public service ads for a group in
this society that in my opinion is very neglected. The so-called rich
people. It seems to me that the ruling class in this country is only a
notch or too ahead of the ruling class of Nazi era Germany. A lot of
imprisonment in poor static intellectual framework. It's not just the wild
biological kids who are "destroying society" but also their dull,
intellectually clouded leaders from the ruling class. The fight between
these two groups *is* social unrest.
Glove:
I guess I would say that the intellect and the biological levels are
separated by the social level and therefore cannot fight directly between
themselves. Leaders are not using intellectual Dynamics to lead, they are
using social Dynamics... what Pirsig called "celebrity force". It would be
my opinion that the students are not using biological level methods to
successfully confront the old leaders, they are using intellect level
methods.
Bill:
>
>I live and work here in Orange County California, which is one of the
wealthier and conservative places you'll find in this world. 20 years ago
when I was an apprentice, my first job was at the home of a very wealthy old
libertarian newspaper publisher. I really like all of these old, wealthy
conservatives. With them I get more money for the quality I give them.
With some of their snotty-ass, middle age children, I tend to get the
opposite--less money for more quality. My company slogan is, All The
Quality You Can Afford and some people just want more and more and more and
really don't care about anything other then the little feeling of social
power they get when they're able to grind out the best possible deal. A few
of them would even pay you a day's feed in oats and Spam for a days hard
work if they could.
Glove:
I live and work near Chicago and am in the private contracting sector too,
seeing very low value situations in working "for" someone else. My prices
vary according to ability of the customer to pay. I too offer a Quality
service second to none and so I pretty much have my pick of who I choose to
do work for. But my work is always Quality work, no matter if I am working
for next-to-nothing (for the little old lady in a trailer) or for my premium
price (the guy with the Cadillac in his garage). There is no price to be put
on Quality, in other words.
Bill:
>
>But I've watched and studied this ruling class for many years now. All in
all, they're not much different from everybody else. They need a lot of
counseling and could even afford it if there were enough good councilors.
People are always struggling for freedom from static containment, but for a
lack of Buddhi, they end up getting sucked back down into a lot of
half-baked static intellectual patterns, social wars and biological
diseases.
>
>I think my "public service" ad for the ruling class (of which I count
myself as a member) might feature a tableau such as this: A friendly
looking character like the Dali Lama would be standing on a hilltop talking
to a visitor from another world who has come to view the earth and its
people. The host would tell the guest of all the good things and bad while
a visual ran depicting various SQ and DQ scenes from the four levels. The
guest, having come from a place and time of higher civilization exclaims;
>
>"I'm surprised to see the low level of Quality in this world".
>The host nods in agreement. "Well, it's all the Quality we can afford at
this time".
>"But you have everything you need here!"
>"It's true", says the host, "the kingdom of heaven is spread out upon the
earth, but men see it not!"
>
>Anyway, even if I could afford to run some public service ads for the
ruling class, I doubt if the TV would go for it. The big business people
would probably consider it to be in conflict with their interests!
Glove:
Yes, I agree with you...
>
>Well, so much for long -winded spells of writing from me. I gotta stack of
dishes in the sink that you wouldn't believe and if I don't get to 'em I'll
have to pay to get it done.
Glove:
Thank you so much for sharing your most perceptive thoughts, Bill. And
always remember, there is much intellectual value to be found in a Whirlpool
dishwasher... :)
Best wishes,
glove
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