From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sun Apr 04 2004 - 22:06:38 BST
Dear Wim,
> Isn't every human being capable of perceiving or adjusting to Dynamic
> Quality? (According to Pirsig in chapter 13 of 'Lila' every living being
> can.) If someone is capable of understanding and expressing philosophies,
> doesn't perceiving and adjusting to DQ (let alone pursuing DQ...) imply
> adding new ideas to these philosophies?
Yes, that's the theory. Unfortunately, either I'm not very responsive to
DQ or DQ has passed me by. I have no philosophical ideas to offer other
than 1) Sometimes take a chance and do nothing because there's no cost and
always the possibility of a beneficial outcome, and 2) Create works that
will be admired for their beauty. As you can see, nothing new there. Sorry
to disappoint.
> You continued:
> 'As for examples of 'war' as a fitting metaphor, in America there's
> acknowledgment and much debate about "Culture Wars". For example, the
> intellectual level, represented in some cases by "liberals" and burdened by
> the defect of having "no provision for morals", supports rap culture which
> glorifies profanity, pornography and bestiality. The recent half-time show
> at our football Super Bowl represented this culture. The social level,
> represented in some cases by "conservatives" and generally supportive of
> Christian social morality, supports so-called "family values" which
> glorifies patriotism, honesty and decency (not to mention sexual abstinence
> before marriage). The vast numbers of Americans attending Sunday school and
> church services each week represent this culture.'
>
> O yes, 'war' is definitely a fitting metaphor for the political
> polarization in the USA. That doesn't convince me that it is also a fitting
> metaphor for the tension between the intellectual and social levels.
> Especially since you now apparently agree with me that 'liberals' and
> 'conservatives' don't consistently represent these levels. I fully agree
> when you write: 'So let us not be too hasty in assigning "conservative" to
> the social level and "liberal" to the intellectual level.'
I see what you mean, I think Pirsig's 'war' between the social and
intellectual levels is less between conservatives and liberals than
between the state (the collective or group) and the individual.
The state wants its citizens to behave in certain, predictable ways by
following its rituals, laws and mores. For the state to survive (or any
group for that matter) it must lay down rules and practices governing
relations among individuals in the group. Thus, the social level's highest
morality is static conformity.
The individual by contrast, while recognizing the necessary role of the
state, wants to be recognized as unique human being and not just another
cog in a machine. She wants to be the means to her own ends, not the ends
of others. Most of of all, she wants to be free to act and speak according
to dictates of her own intellect, not the dictates of politically correct
thought imposed by the state.That's why she gets upset when individual
opinions are stifled such as when someone stands up to defend fundamental
Christianity, or the superiority of Western culture, or the existence of
racial differences in intelligence, or that America is a force for good in
a corrupt world and gets (at best) shouted down or (at worst) punished.
The highest morality for the individual is dynamic freedom from state
(group) conformity, or as Pirsig might put it, freedom to be degenerate..
Our constitutional Bill of Rights guaranteeing freedom of speech,
religion, trial by jury, etc., cited by Pirsig as intellectual values,
are specifically designed to protect the individual from the coercive
power of the state.
Pirsig clearly illustrates this war between society and the individual--
between the social and intellectual levels--in the story of the brujo and
the Zuni tribe.
What do you think?
Best regards,
Platt
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