In a message dated 12/27/99 10:26:24 AM Central Standard Time,
pholden5@earthlink.net writes:
<< In fact, the MoQ firmly attaches the Judeo-Christian ideals of caring,
love
they neighbor, do unto others, etc. to the social level. Further, these
ideals
have been around for at least 2000 years, placing them in the static quality
category. I’m reminded of the following Pirsig quote:
“Static morality is full of heroes and villains, loves and hatreds, carrots
and
sticks. Its values don't change by themselves. Unless they are altered by
Dynamic Quality they say the same thing year after year. Sometimes they
say it more loudly, sometimes more softly, but the message is always the
same.” (Lila, Chap. 9)
By MoQ standards the message of “caring” is as fine an example of static
morality as you’re likely to find. Nor has caring always been the beacon of
hope for humanity that some attribute to it. After all, caring for the souls
of
nonbelievers was the excuse for the tortures of the Inquisition, and caring
for
the purity of the human race was the rationale for Nazi genocide. >>
Hi Platt
I can't remember what page it is on, but in ZMM Pirsig talks about caring. In
fact, he talks very highly of it, if I remember correctly. He talks about the
role caring (or lack thereof) plays in our lives. Just because this was in
ZMM and not Lila does not seem like a valid reason to dismiss it.
And I would also suggest that the very composition of the MOQ by Pirsig is
evidence that Pirsig cares about humanity.
I agree with most of your post, however. Pirsig loves to categorize
everything, and caring and compassion probably fall roughly where you placed
them within the context of the MOQ. But the MOQ can be very tricky, despite
its waterproof facade. It depends on how you look at it, especially the
static/dynamic aspect.
Just because caring has been around for 2000 years does not mean that it
can't be dynamic. Perhaps our intellect has encapsulated the idea of caring
into a static box, but that's our intellect's fault, intellect heavily
influenced by society.
We often lose sight of how the social level has manipulated and influenced
the intellectual level. IMO its influence on us is so huge that we rarely
give it a second thought; its one of those things we take for granted and
just accept, like gravity and light. So I'm very wary of proclaiming anything
static.
Your quote from Lila is interesting. "Static morality is full of heroes and
villains...Unless they are altered by dynamic quality they say the same thing
year after year..." The most important part of this quote is the part that is
the easiest to miss. This is caused by the structure and content of the
paragraph.
"Unless they are altered by dynamic quality."
This is the key. Pirsig has implanted an escape hatch for virtually every
aspect of every level in the MOQ; the escape hatch is dynamic quality. Maybe
"escape hatch" is the wrong word, but it gets the general point across.
The MOQ in some ways is nothing more than a useful tool designed for use by
our fledgling intellects; a cane for the blind. It helps us avoid obstacles
in the dark, but not always. Sometimes no matter how skilled we are with the
cane we still walk into walls (and yes, some people are much more skilled
with their canes than others).
Our intellect is but a tiny ember of light in a universe of unexplained
darkness. We spend our lives examining the scant illumination that thousands
of years of walking into enough walls has provided. We humans stand huddled
together like a small group of scared actors on a stage, squeezed into a
small spotlight of understanding. Few dare plunge into the darkness. Darkness
is dynamic.
If one does decide to venture into the darkness, the MOQ makes an adequate
walking stick.
Jon
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