From: Scott R (jse885@spinn.net)
Date: Thu Jul 03 2003 - 00:47:00 BST
Johnny,
> Platt and I need an umpire:
>
> Is the Giant primarily the social patterns, along the lines of government,
> that keep cities humming, as Platt says, or is it more the economic system
> of free enterprise, and technology?
I think Pirsig had mostly in mind that it is the economic system, but
clearly, government is a part of that, since it sets and enforces the rules.
By "economic system", I do not mean the theory of capitalism (or socialism),
but the sum of everybody's getting and spending.
>
> Platt wants to put the Giant in the third level, so that the fourth level
> can be free of any "bad" patterns. I think the Giant is a fourth level
> pattern, I like to see the third level as pristine.
Obviously the third level, and I'm kind of boggled at how it could be seen
in any other way. And I can't imagine either the third or fourth level being
pristine, short of the millenium. I must have missed something in the
discussion.
>
> Is the Giant even entirely bad? I don't like it, it isn't human, it uses
> humans, devours them.
It mostly just is. It is up to individuals to tame it (make it more
fourth-level friendly) or escape it if they want to. There are better and
worse Giants.
- Scott
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 : Thu Jul 03 2003 - 00:48:23 BST