From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Mon Jul 11 2005 - 16:56:53 BST
> Ed
> You best reread Chapter 13. Your comments suggest there is no bound to
> personal pursuit of wealth despite the cost to others or to society. The
> MOQ does support limits on personal wealth when such activity becomes a
> detriment to society.
>
> Pirsig noted:
> Intellect is going its own way, and in doing so is at war with society,
> seeking to subjugate society, to put society under lock and key. An
> evolutionary morality says it is moral for intellect to do so, but it also
> contains a warning: Just as a society that weakens its people's physical
> health endangers its own stability, so does an intellectual pattern that
> weakens and destroys the health of its social base also endanger[s] its own
> stability.
>
> Better to say "has endangered." It's already happened. this has been a
> century of fantastic intellectual growth and fantastic social destruction.
> The only question is how long this process can keep on.
I've read the passage you quoted from Chap. 13 several times, and all of
Chap. 13, and have yet to discover where Pirsig says pursuit of wealth
threatens society.
Ed:
> More generally on the topic of Morality and Society, I'll set forth two
> quotes. One from Joseph Campbell and one from Pirsig. Both provide support
> in looking at the larger picture and synthesizing our activities with
> greater awareness. I found them similar and thought they not only hedge
> against the static codes of morality in which our society is now embedded,
> but also force a look at the foundation upon which our morality is based:
Forgetting Joe Campbell for a moment, you provided the following quote
from Pirsig to support your contention that somehow our society needs
improvement.
> From Pirsig in ZMM
> At the moment of pure Quality perception, or not even perception, at the
> moment of pure Quality, there is no subject and there is no object. There
> is only a sense of Quality that produces a later awareness of subjects and
> objects. At the moment of pure Quality, subject and object are identical.
> ... What really counts in the end is peace of mind, nothing else. The
> reason for this is that peace of mind is a prerequisite for a perception of
> Quality which is beyond romantic Quality and classic Quality and which
> unites the two, and which must accompany the work as it proceeds. The way
> to see what looks good and understand the reasons it looks good, and to be
> at one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner
> quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through. ... So the
> thing to do when working on a motorcycle, as in any other task, is to
> cultivate the peace of mind which does not separate one's self from one's
> surroundings. When that is done successfully then everything else follows
> naturally. Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right
> thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce
> that which will be a reflection for others to see of the serenity at the
> center of it all.
I fail to see the connection. Please explain.
Thanks,
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
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Jul 11 2005 - 16:57:05 BST