From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Sat Aug 20 2005 - 03:31:55 BST
Hi Sam,
You wanted to discuss this quote:
"Blacks have no right to violate social codes and call it 'racism'
when someone tries to stop them, if those codes are not racist codes.
That is slander. The fight to sustain social codes isn't a war of
black vs whites or Hispanics vs blacks, or poor people vs rich people
or even stupid people against intelligent people, or any other of all
the other possible cultural configurations. It's a war of biology vs
society. It's a war of _biological_ blacks and _biological_ whites
against _social_ blacks and _social_ whites. Genetic patterns just
confuse the matter. And this is a war in which intellect, to end the
paralysis of society, has to know whose side it is on, and support
that side, never undercut it. Where biological values are
undermining social values, intellectuals must identify _social_
behaviour, no matter what it's ethnic connection, and support it all
the way without restraint. Intellectuals must find _biological_
behaviour, no matter what its ethnic connection, and limit or destroy
destructive biological patterns with complete moral ruthlessness,
the way a doctor destroys germs, before those biological patterns
destroy civilization itself."
msh:
Since we've already analyzed and agreed upon the meaning of the last
sentence, I see little here to disagree with. I am a little
uncomfortable with his focus on blacks and whites, as opposed to
other "genetic patterns," or not discussing genetic patterns at all.
I realize that this passage follows those where he remembers going to
parties where criminal blacks were revered, or so he imagined, while
cops were universally vilified; I've said before, he was going to
the wrong parties. I also realize that, given his own upbringing and
the horrible facts of his son's death, that Pirsig, like many of us,
might have some intellectually muted discomfort with black people, so
maybe that explains the emphasis.
Anyway, let's rewrite the thrust of the passage without references to
blacks or whites, using instead our agreed on symbolism:
"No B-D individual has the right to violate social codes and call it
'unjust' when someone tries to stop them, if those codes are not
unjust codes. That is slander. The fight to sustain social codes is a
war of biology vs society. It's a war of B-D individuals against S-D
individuals. Genetic patterns just confuse the matter. And this is a
war in which intellect, to end the paralysis of society, has to know
whose side it is on, and support that side, never undercut it. Where
biological values are undermining social values, intellectuals must
identify S-D behavior, no matter what it's ethnic connection, and
support it all the way without restraint. Intellectuals must find B-D
behavior, no matter what its ethnic connection, and limit or destroy
destructive B-D behavior with complete moral ruthlessness, the way a
doctor destroys germs, before such behavior destroys civilization
itself."
Now the first sentence is crucial, because it's the job of Intellect
to determine whether or not society's codes are just; just as, in the
last sentence, it's the job of Intellect to determine whether or not
society is correct in its evaluation of what constitutes destructive
B-D behavior, that is, behavior that undermines social values.
Whadaya think?
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
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