From: phyllis bergiel (neilfl@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sat May 10 2003 - 16:01:00 BST
Hi Steve,
No i have not. I don't feel any desire to either.
Having said that, i do feel there is huge potential for MoQ research. However, the research conducted so far has been primarily of an, 'Here is MY interpretation' sort, which is a waste of creative energy in my view. A better path for research, and one i try to undertake myself, is an 'Here are some insights provided as a direct illumination of the MoQ' sort.
(What follows is a bit 'soapbox' so feel free to stop if you like!)
In my view, the path of research undertaken so far may be analysed using the MoQ itself. In this regard, my criticisms of this forum are an example of the MoQ at work? I hope so anyway. Applying MoQ thinking to the forum reveals, if i am near the target, social patterns of value having come to undermining intellectual potential. There has been much of great value - Lila's child, the work by Anthony McWatt, but i feel there is so much more potential. I emphasise this for this reason: The MoQ is such a challenging perceptual shift from the one provided by western culture, that it will require many people to forge the path ahead. It's time to get to work and build upon the significant and excellent work already done, and what has already been done by those who have applied themselves should deserve all the attention it deserves. Sadly, this is being fogged and left unattended. No one, for example, said a word about McWatt's last essay?
You're right, I skipped it thinking I didn't know enough about the UK education system.
And that is precisely the application of MoQ thinking to some of our cultural problems?
Exactly. My favorite field is applied ethics. Though I'm not a casuist I think there is both something illuminating about examples of application and that application acts as a test of theory.
That's my 20/20 hindsight view as provided by the my understanding of the MoQ. Nothing i say is written in stone and must be challenged, of course. No problems with that.
What can be done next to help?
The MoQ says little about that, because one cannot use the MoQ as a crystal ball. However, having an excellent view of where you've been may be a good guide to where you may be going? That's very helpful wouldn't you say? And to this end i decided to influence social stasis with a dynamic intellectual approach: satire. That's a moral activity in MoQ terms, because if satire is an intellectual activity, then it may be moral to use it to undermine social stasis?
But is satire an intellectual activity? Well, people have been killed because they satirised. The social status quo can find it very threatening. Satirists throughout history have been damn lucky if they get away with it. Even the court fool, who provided possibly the only real mirror for an individual surrounded by hellish deceit had to be careful never to be anything less than completely honest. See how that is an example of satire being used BY social patterns for their own safety? The fool's trade is pure, 100% real - anything less could mean death? And its also exceptionally dynamic wouldn't you agree? Or can be anyway. Would you not agree that good satire is rather like jazz improvisation? When it hits the mark, it is leaving the total repertoire of current static patterning and becoming something new?
I wonder what the MoQ has to say about satire? I would venture satire is intellectual quality. Without intellectual patterns satire becomes social badgering. Am looking into this over the summer...
I just finished a paper on wit in shakespeare - if one posits satire as a form of wit...which is defined as either intellect or the ability to perceive and express in an ingeniously humorous manner the relationship between seemingly incongruous things - the second sounds like a requirement for DQ doesn't it?
(The soapbox is thankfully retreated.)
Soapboxes are noninstitutionalized pedestals.
I would suggest reading 'Zen in the art of archery' by Euen Herrigel, 'The meeting of East and West' by FSC Northrop, and The guide to ZMM - which is easily found. Indian and Zen thinking as a long haul, but woefully neglected in the forum.
With regard to your inside/outside thing, i would suggest dropping that. This distinction is misleading. That's something you may wish to DO rather than TALK about? You are the real motorcycle, and this forum would do well to help us in this regard.
Best of luck,
squonk.
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