John B, Denis, Bill, Platt, Clark and Y'all:
Wow ! John, you are racking up major points in my book. Just like you,
I've been fascinated with R.D.Laing for some time. I have to tell you
that I nearly met the man, but he died a day or two before it could
happen. He was scheduled to appear at a conference here in Colorado, but
never made it. He was expected to be the star, the key-note speaker at a
conference where even the participants were some pretty heavy hitters.
Fritjof Capra was supposed to attend as a speaker too. J.T. Walsh was
there. He was an excellent actor who has also passed away. Raymond Moody
was there. (I think in was in August of 89)
I was very impressed by a slim book Laing wrote called "Knots". He was
an intellectual, but like Pirsig, he expresses his ideas in a very
aesthetic way. "Knots" is written like a Beat style
stream-of-consciousness poem. It has a hypnotic rythum that works to
lubricate the intellect and lets new ideas slide in with ease. He was an
artist in this respect. Amazing guy. His death was disappointing to me
and the other conferees, but at least he passed away in style. He was on
vacation at the time and keeled over on the tennis court. He was having
fun right up to the last moment of his life. Pretty cool, huh?
Laing and Pirsig do have similar ideas about going through insanity to
come out on the other side. On page 361 Pirsig writes, "The question is
whether she's (Lila) going to work THROUGH what ever it is that makes
the defence necessary or whether she is going to work AROUND it. If she
works through it she'll come out at a Dynamic solution. If she works
around it she'll just head back to the old karmic cycles of pain and
temporary relief." I think Laing was very well aware of the difference
between through and around. The only way through it is to go through it.
There are no short cuts and there's no going around it.
I think its safe to say that radio therapists are not to be taken
seriously. There's a widely syndicated radio shrink here who calls
herself Dr. Laura. My friends and I are fond of calling her Dr. Nazi
instead. She dispenses heart-less, soul-less and stupid advice while
berating and humiliating those who seek her council. Her opinions are
nothing more that common-sense social values and she is not even trained
in the field. Her education is in physical therapy and her schtick is
very much about social conformity. She's a glorified gym teacher with a
mircophone that reaches millions. Its very sad and destructive. But we
are, after all, talking about mass media and talk radio, not real
therapy.
But more to the point, Pirsig takes this on directly too. As you put it,
therapists "certainly understood sanity as meeting societal norms, and
Pirsig really does challenge this complacent idiocy." Pirsig says that
cops are in charge of controlling biological values in favor of social
values and Psychiatrists are in charge of controlling social values in
favor of the intellect. But in both cases were talking about who is in
charge of maintaining the status quo. Cops control unacceptable behavior
and Shrinks control unacceptable ideas. They both function as static
filters and very few can recognize the value of a dynamic individual. To
them, DQ is just criminality and/or insanity. This is why Bishops gets
so nervous when a saint enters the church. Church officals played the
same role as the police and therapist do today, they acted as static
filters.
There are lots of these gate keepers, politicians, judges, military
leaders, preachers, Deans and deacons. They are like janitors. They keep
everything neat and tidy, but you're not likely to learn much from them.
They only serve to help people ignore the empirical reality right in
front of them in favor of socially sanctioned filters. They like us to
ignore the road in favor of the map, as in the Cleveland harbor effect.
You know what I mean?
I wouldn't go so far as to say these static values are unreal, though. I
think they are hollow and empty compared to direct, unmediated
experience. Static values are necessary in the overall arch of
evolution, but they are unsatisfying compared to that feeling of really
being "in it". I think its like the difference between watching other
people play a game on TV and actually putting yourself out there in the
game itself. Just as most people are merely arm-chair quarterbacks and
not real athletes, most people are distant observers of their own lives.
We long for the feeling of really being alive and engaged in the world.
"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation" and "the unexamined life is
one not worth living" are two alternative ways of saying the same thing,
I think.
I should point out that neurotic projection is a slightly different
problem. It seems to me that normally this enlightenment business ought
to be reserved for folks with a relatively healthy mind. I mean there is
static latching and static filters, but real mental illness can
complicate the issue beyond all hope. I don't think Charlie Manson has
an ice cube's chance in hell. He's just too sick. In his case a little
conformity would be an improvement. And I think its been demonstarted
historically that an entire culture can be as sick as that individual.
the NAZIs were the not-sees, if you know what I mean. They stepped back
into Barbarism and latched there with a hellish brutality. Same with
Stalin's Russia. Both were cases of devolution, which is even worse that
being static and sqaure.
I think the trick is to integrate all the static values that are within
each of us into a coherent unity. Usually the person with "integrity" is
just one who meets all the standard moral expectations. The popular
meaning of the word merely refers to society's favorite kind of
conformist. But in the MOQ and elsewhere the true meaning of the word
"integrity" refers to one who has integrated all the levels of static
patterns into a well balanced whole. Here the static patterns are
perfected so that they then can be transcended. Mastery of the static
values comes before evolutionary creativity. Otherwise the dynamic
creativity won't last. It won't add up. That's the difference between
re-generation and de-generation, and the difference between DQ and mere
chaos. That's the difference between creativity and destruction.
Not to beat a dead horse, but you can see how an integrated personality
is able to recognize the biological value of sexuality, but not be ruled
by it. The integrated person is neither prude nor slut. They don't
ignore sex, but they don't center their lives around it either. Pirsig
paints a pretty clear picture of this in his description of laying with
Lila. He felt those ancient biological values welling up in himself and
recognized the underlying quality of such an experience. He wasn't too
disgusted or fascinated by it, but was able to put it all in a context
and in perspective. He knows there are higher forms of value, but
sucessfully integrated the biological into the larger picture. Lila's
breakdown has alot to do with her inability to maintain a sense of
proportion. Social and intellectual values were practically non-existent
to her and she suffered greatly for it. Like Pirsig she is a contrarian,
but is dis-integrated, torn apart. She'd let biological values dominate
for way too long and to the exclusion of higher values.
Of all the characters in the novel, it is Rigel who changes the most.
Because of Pirsig's one moral act, saying Lila had quality, Rigel
changes from a judgemental Victorian into a compassionate old friend. I
think that the whole MOQ is aimed at transforming the Rigel's of the
world and so this senario makes alot of sense. Its a kind of compassion
born with the expansion of consciousness. He rescues Lila in the end
because his mind has been opened up a little. He's a lot less static in
the end when he tells Pirsig, "They're calling the cops, so you can be
here for five more minutes or five more weeks, its up to you". By this
point Rigel is a Lawyer who is willing to help another escape from the
law. Rigel has come a long way from his warnings against dancing and
nookie. He's come to see that there are more important things than
following the rules. "And Lila's battle is everybody's battle, you
know?"
"In addition to the usual solutions to insanity - stay locked up or
learn to conform - there was a third one, to reject all movies, private
and cultural, and head for DQ itself, which is no movie at all." (page
360 of the hard back)
Beyond static patterns and beyond static filters there is DQ, which is
also beyond all projection, neurotic, private or cultural. Once this
un-projected reality is experienced all static patterns become
transparent. The mystics does not ignore patterned reality, but sees
through it and beyond it. The mystic sees that the true underlying
Quality supports himself and the universe. He sees that the patterns are
secondary. The static patterns are "real", but not primary. In the same
way, the shadows on the wall are also "real". The mistake is in thinking
that there is no larger reality. But when one steps out of the cave and
into the bright light of the sun, those shadows seem dark and dim by
comparison. Now you've stopped watching and are really out there among
the living things. And even if you've never acutally been outside the
cave, there are those like Pirsig who are willing to go back into the
dank darkness to warn those still chained inside that there is a better
place very close by.
David B.
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