This was originally sent to the Lila Squad and rejected. Diana suggested I
send it here instead.
attached mail follows:
Hello Squad
Roger posed two questions.
Q. Are all patterns of value also intellectual patterns?
A. No.
Q. Were the 4 levels of MoQ discovered or created?
A. Created.
I feel compelled to say that I still find more Dialectic than Rhetoric in the
Lila Squad. Most of the posters seem possessed more by the spirit of
Aristotle than by the spirit of the Sophists, despite their alleged devotion
to Pirsig's Quality (which is the Arete of the Sophists). Pirsig's most
important message is that Quality can NOT be defined, it is simply beyond the
grasp of man's mind, and he's right. Stop attacking this message with your
Dialectic swords, you Aristotle-possessed people (and you are all possessed
by Aristotle whether you know it or not). Your Dialectic swords will do you
no good, for Quality is impenetrable. You cannot cut Quality up into bloody,
namable chunks (T-bone, rib-eye, boston butt) and then sell it as
intellectual steaks in the modern intellectual meat markets we call
universities. Maybe you butchers/professors/intellectuals can fool a few
people into buying your "choice cuts" but the few true Sophists of the world
know all you are selling is a primitive form of communication known as
language. I know we are stuck with the spoken and written word for now, but
while we are we should strive for excellence in its highest incarnation,
Rhetoric, not its lowest, the vile Dialectic.
Dialectic people remind me of attorneys, trying to build their case with
every trick in the book. Dialectic people are always trying to tear down
everything in the name of their holy "Truth" and they have thrown "Good" in
the back seat. Good belongs in the driver's seat, not the back seat. Good
over Truth. It's a major point of ZMM that seems shockingly *ignored* in both
LS and MD. Perhaps because most people are content being possessed by the
spirit of Aristotle. Truth is God to these people. Good should be God. I've
pointed this out before, but isn't it funny how suggesting to an intellectual
that Truth is not supreme gets the same kind of affronted, knee-jerk reaction
that you get when you suggest to a Christian that God is not supreme.
Too many people here at Lila Squad whip out their Dialectic swords every
chance they get, to chop things up into namable, Aristotelian chunks.
Therefore most of the posts are not that enjoyable to read. I see too many
Aristotelian laundry lists. If we started honing our Rhetoric rather than our
Dialectic, maybe things will change. I appreciate that some of the posters
try to imbue their posts with a bit of humor, but the attempts at humor often
come across as fake to me (much like the fake, false stuff that drove
Phaedrus crazy near the end of chapter 30 of ZMM), almost like an attempt to
cover up the banality at the core of most of these posts, the kind of
banality you find in tech manuals, those tedious books that give a name to
everything and tell you how to put everything together (this goes there and
that goes there). Pirsig talks about tech manuals in ZMM. Throw down your
Dialectic swords and hone your Rhetoric. It will greatly improve the
enjoyability of reading these posts, and may encourage more people to join in
and start posting, lurkers out there who might be hesitant to post a message
because they fear your Dialectic swords. Those kids in the "back of the
class" that Pirsig liked best, but who always got the worst grade because
something inside of them rebelled against giving a name to everything,
rebelled against the spirit of Aristotle. These kids in the back of the class
may not be able to give a name to everything, but they may have extremely
valuable insights to contribute nevertheless. Don't scare them away, and
don't bore them to death with all these banal tech manual posts. The true
Sophists of the world IMO can subliminally sense the spirit of Aristotle, and
they stray from areas where his spirit dominates.
These two question from Roger were fine, but look what happened. Before
even attempting to answer, many of you posters had to attack the *questions*
first with your Dialectic swords. You had to chop the questions up into
chunks before you answered, and most of the answers were vague ambiguities
floating in a sea of limbo. There were very few clear "Yes" or "No" answers.
There were too many "Both" answers, too many "All of the Above" answers.
Answers that aren't even answers. Magnus did the best job IMO. Can't someone
answer a question around here without all the tedious word games and word
traps and tech manual jargon, without tacking on the needless and humorless
"I could be wrong." Of course you could be wrong, we are all wrong
eventually, truth is relative. We know this.
I'm certainly not saying I'm doing a better job than anyone else, I'm
just pointing out that I feel there are some deep problems within Lila Squad
that no one else seems to notice, or doesn't have the guts to *stand* up and
say so. I'd like to see the Squad grow, but change must take place in order
for this to happen. I hope you will accept this message in love, each and
every one of you.
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