Re: MD the worst thing about 9/11 according to the MoQ

From: Scott Roberts (jse885@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun Nov 14 2004 - 20:00:04 GMT

  • Next message: Scott Roberts: "RE: MD Where does quality reside?"

    Platt, Sam, DMB, et al

    What about someone who is not and never will be a source of ideas, for
    example, someone with severe mental retardation? How does the MOQ justify
    using the resources to keep such a person alive, resources which could
    otherwise be spent educating others who might be the source of ideas?

    - Scott

    > [Original Message]
    > From: Platt Holden <pholden@sc.rr.com>
    > To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>; <owner-moq_discuss@venus.co.uk>
    > Date: 11/14/2004 11:37:10 AM
    > Subject: Re: MD the worst thing about 9/11 according to the MoQ
    >
    > Hi Sam,
    >
    > > Firstly, does Pirsig believe and argue that
    > > genocide is immoral? Second, does the MoQ support that argument?
    >
    > > So I will ask once more: in what way does the MoQ give value to people
    as
    > > such, rather than to the patterns of value of which people are composed?
    >
    > > If anyone else wants to try, I'd be delighted to pursue the matter in a
    > > more reasonable fashion. In the meantime, I shall just be more confirmed
    > > that there is a glaring hole in the MoQ.
    >
    > Pirsig might argue that the MOQ regards people as the source of ideas and
    > therefore it is immoral to kill them "as such" unless they threaten to
    > kill others. I'm thinking here of his discussion of capital punishment in
    > Chapter 13 of Lila:
    >
    > "What makes killing him immoral is that a criminal is not just a
    > biological organism. He is not even just a defective unit of society.
    > Whenever you kill a human being you are killing a source of thought too.
    A
    > human being is a collection of ideas, and these 13ideas take moral
    > precedence over a society. Ideas are patterns of value. They are at a
    > higher level of evolution than social patterns of value. Just as it is
    > more moral for a doctor to kill a germ than a patient, so it is more
    moral
    > for an idea to kill a society than it is for a society to kill an idea.
    > And beyond that is an even more compelling reason; societies and thoughts
    > and principles themselves are no more than sets of static patterns. These
    > patterns can't by themselves perceive or adjust to Dynamic Quality. Only
    a
    > living being can do that."
    >
    > So, besides being composites of lower patterns of value, people are the
    > source of the intellectual level since they think (manipulate symbols).
    > Furthermore, they are the only current "composites" capable of responding
    > to DQ.
    >
    > Naturally if one group (like radical Muslims) threaten genocide on
    another
    > group (like Christians), then the threatened group is morally justified
    to
    > take preemptive measures to wipe the threateners out.
    >
    > Platt
    >
    >
    >
    > MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
    > Mail Archives:
    > Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
    > Nov '02 Onward -
    http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
    > MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
    >
    > To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
    > http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html

    MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
    Mail Archives:
    Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
    Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
    MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net

    To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
    http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html

    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sun Nov 14 2004 - 20:31:14 GMT