From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sun Mar 09 2003 - 02:01:45 GMT
Steve said to Platt, DMB and all:
It is interesting to me that the two of you both find the moq to be a moral
road map, but it takes you to different sides of the political debate. I am
curious to know if the MOQ has caused either or both of you to change your
position on issues since before you read ZAMM or Lila. For example,
perhaps you used to be pro-choice and now you are pro-life or the reverse.
Perhaps you thought the death penalty was immoral, but through thinking in
terms of moq, you have come to find it justifiable.
DMB says:
Good question. My political views have changed dramatically. I used to be a
conservative, went to a conservative college and was an Ayn Rand fan. I
don't know how much of that change can be attributed to Pirsig, but perhaps
it is not a co-incidence that my views began to change about the time I
first read ZAMM. The change in perspective that Lila "caused" in me is more
specific. It has everything to do with the things I keep harping on, namely
the distinction between social and intellectual values. I don't think the
MOQ's moral compass can be used at all without understanding the difference.
And coming to grips with this has revealed to me a totally different
understanding of the differences between political ideologies. I wish I had
access to these idea when I wrote my thesis on Hitler's ideology. I never
understood what fascism and other reactionary movements were all about until
I read Lila.
Pirsig...
"Communism and socialism, programs for intellectual control over society,
were confronted by the reactionary forces of fascism, a program for the
social control of intellect. ... The gigantic power of socialism and
fascism, which have overwhelm this century, is explained by a conflict of
levels of evolution."
"The New Deal was many things, but at the center of it all was the belief
that intellectual planning by the government was necessary for society to
regain its health. ...it was also a new deal for the intelllectuals of
America." P274
"It's not that Victorian social economic patterns are more moral than
socialist intellectual economic patterns. Quite the opposite. They are LESS
moral as static patterns go." P221
"According to the MOQ these "human rights" have... a rational, metaphysical
basis. They are essential to the evolution of a higher level of life from a
lower level of life. They are for real." P307
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