From: Joseph Maurer (jhmau@sbcglobal.net)
Date: Tue Mar 29 2005 - 19:12:03 BST
On 26 March 2005 8:49 AM Platt writes to all:
[Platt] Was looking for something else in Pirsig's notes to Lila's Child and
come across this prescient passage:
"I think the MOQ would say that society has a moral right to control
biology. The danger is in that in controlling biology society creates
customs that injure society itself. Clearly the cost of caring for
biologically defective people is a burden on society, but the question is,
if society sanctions the murder of a defective fetus, what other kinds of
murder is it going to sanction? Think of the money that could be saved by
executing all criminals, all mentally ill people, all people with and IQ
below 100, all old people, all people with poor DNA patterns, all people
who can do 40 pushups, and so on. The question is -- where do you cut it
off? I personally am pro-choice, but I understand the moral integrity of
those who are not. It is a matter for society through its mechanisms of
politics to decide and keep deciding as it evolves toward a better world."
It appears Pirsig would approve of Congress getting involved in the
Schiavo case despite the argument of some that the decision to remove her
feeding tube ought to be restricted to the law as interpreted by the
courts. In any case, Pirsig cautions against using the MOQ as the basis
for arriving at cut and dried answers to the moral questions involved in
this case, not that anyone has proposed such to date.
Hi Platt and all,
I am thinking of a game of baseball where the batter dies from being hit in
the head by a ball thrown by the pitcher. I am thinking of the Tsunami which
killed thousands. I go back to the levels, inorganic, organic, social, and
intellectual, and I think something is a bit obscure.
For myself I want to see a law of three, active, passive, neutral as
proposed by Gurdljieff to be applied to determine morality. IMO when a
component of a level is active, it is dynamic, when passive, static, and
when neutral dynamic/static. Ordinarily the ball is directed by the active
wish of the pitcher and the batter's head is actively protected by a
helmet.. Ordinarily water is actively contained within boundaries.
IMO Congress proposes laws for society from an active thought process. In
the Schiavo case Congress was passive to an outside force, and in some
pronouncements of the members, unusually uninformed. I think the active
force and hence the dynamic force was with the judges interpreting the laws
in the court for an individual in an individual state. All politics are
local.
When dogma becomes active in the social order, it is usually referred to as
idolatry. When activist judges change laws, anarchy results. The social
order becomes passive. Active policing can be restored by proper
legislation. Ordinarily this is a measured process, not an hysterical
assertion of dogma.
Joe
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