From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sun Jan 12 2003 - 14:14:16 GMT
Hi DMB, Matt, All.
Some of the statements in DMB's posts can usually be counted on to
supply a laugh or two by seeing what they leave out as well as what
they lump together.
In the leave out category, we find the following:
> There are plenty of reasons to associate liberalism with
> socialism, but the main reason I connect them here is because Pirsig does
> so. These two are among the 4th level ideologies.
What DMB left out, of course, was Communism. Pirsig includes it:
"Communism and socialism, programs for intellectual control over
society, were confronted by the reactionary forces of fascism, a
program for the social control of intellect." (22)
So whenever DMB praises liberalism and socialism, add communism to
the list of his favorite ideologies.
In the lump together category, we find DMB writing:
> Clearly, there are
> differences between them, but they are on the same level. So it is with
> fascists, fundamentalists, reactionaries, victorians, capitalists and
> conservatives. There are certainly differences, but they all belong to the
> third level and are thereby associated with the other "mindless traditons".
Beside the ludicrous lumping together of conservations like William F.
Buckley, Milton Friedman and George Will with the likes of Mussolini
and Hitler, DMB leaves the impression that Pirsig is an anti-capitalist
which of course is ridiculous.
"What makes the free-enterprise system superior is that the socialists,
reasoning intelligently and objectively, have inadvertently closed the
door to Dynamic Quality in the buying and selling of things." (17)
So when DMB suggests you must be really dumb to support capitalism
over socialism, remember that a dumb bunny like Pirsig says it's
"superior."
Platt
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