From: Matt Kundert (pirsigaffliction@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Jul 15 2005 - 18:33:49 BST
Somebody (Arlo?) quoted Pirsig:
"These fill the collective consciousness of all communicating mankind.
Every last bit of it."
Ham asked:
I have two questions concerning this statement:
1) What does "collective consciousness" have to do with any of the
"analogues" previously quoted?
2) Why did Matt Kundert insist to me that he'd never seen the term and had
no idea what it meant? (I guess Matt will have to answer that one.)
Matt:
Hunh, what, hey? Somebody talking about me? My ears are burning a little
bit.
Hmmm.
Yeah, I'd have to say it really doesn't sound like me to "insist" that I'd
"never seen the term"--I'm gathering from the context--"collective
consciousness." The passage Arlo is reading is one of my favorites, one I
go back to all the time in my renderings of Pirsig. So I doubt I said I'd
never seen it. What's more, I don't even know why I would've "insisted"
that I'd never seen it. As if not having seen it before is some sort of
strike against it. That doesn't sound like me.
But hey, maybe I did say that. I think the revealing remark is that I "had
no idea what it meant." That sounds more like me. Specifically, I imagine,
it had something to do with me not having any idea how _you_, Ham, were
using the term. I know how to render Pirsig's usage. I imagine what
happened was, I was going on about that or some related passage and you said
something like, "OH! Collective consciousness? What, are we some big
commune brain? Thinking together in mantras, or asking our commune for
permission to think things, or maybe some strange sort of telepathy? That's
a horrible and degenerate idea!" And I probably went, "I said what? I
didn't say that, did I?..." mumbling in confusion. I could see that
happening. (Followed by a demand for explication. I'm so very demanding.
Always with the demand.)
But, no, that's not what Pirsig means. Pirsig's not talking about some big,
ephemeral brain or think-tank that all of us pour and pull our thoughts into
and out of. Pirsig's talking about books. He's talking about receiving an
education. He's talking about learning the language of the historical
culture we were born into. He's talking about learning the analogues upon
analogues upon analogues which make up the language of our time. That's the
collective consciousness that has grown and changed since the time of the
creation of language. One can call it "collective" because it wasn't
created by a single source. It was created by many sources over a long
time. In fact, we all participate in creating it (or, rather, changing it)
simply by using it (which we have no other choice but to--well, at least to
remain "sane"). We can call it "collective" because our common educations
in the language of our time and place is why we all think in a way enough
like our fellows that we can understand each other.
Matt
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