From: Matt Kundert (pirsigaffliction@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Nov 29 2005 - 23:57:53 GMT
Matt said:
"I'm somewhere in the middle, though compared to you DMB, I lean heavily
towards "What spiritual crisis?" But it only seems that way when I'm
compared to you, and because I think taking care of poverty is more
important then everyone discovering mysticism."
Gav said:
what if (re)discovering mysticism is the key to taking care of poverty (and
everything else)?
Matt:
Sure, that's what would be argued against me, but I can't find much reason
to think that. I think it would be like arguing that finding God is a
prerequisite to taking care of poverty. I think we can take care of poverty
whether or not we rediscover mysticism, find God, or all become
pragamitists.
Clearly this is a contentious issue, maybe especially around here, but I'm
just not sure how you'd connect the rediscovery of mysticism together with
the reduction of poverty in a more plausible way than Christians have been
doing for many, many (many) years. Secularists like myself always scratch
our head and say, "Well, we've been becoming less theistic and more free and
less poverty stricken over the last 300 years, so I'm not quite sure how
plausible your suggestion really is that we'll get a big jump on the poverty
issue if we all became believing Christians."
I'm always interested in hearing the narratives people construct to connect
the issue. Sometimes, like Pirsig's, they really are quite imaginative and
instructive. But at the end of the day, I can't really figure out how they
are supposed to help us pass legislation to make systemic inequalities
disappear. They may help us be better human beings, but I'm not sure how
they help on the Senate floor. I can see in a broad, long-term sense how
they might help, like how I think humanity would be better off in the long
run if they became commonsensically pragmatists, but in the short-run I
can't see how it will help.
Matt
_________________________________________________________________
Is your PC infected? Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfeeŽ
Security. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
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 : Wed Nov 30 2005 - 07:31:08 GMT