From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Tue Jun 22 2004 - 03:00:33 BST
Hi Rich,
Don't despair. I agree with Anthony. I think Pirsig comes off on
the side of grace and goodness on this issue, even though he, given
his personal history, might more understandably have leaned the
other way.
It's true that he could have spent some time detailing the effects of
systemic racism on blacks themselves, but, really, that would have
been moving considerably away from the book's subject, which is a
more general inquiry into morals. And what would be the need,
anyway, since the history of racism is so well known?
Anyway, he's just one man, and Lila is just one book. There's a
funny video of Chomsky fielding questions from several people, each
of whom wanted to know why he focused more on the plight of the
Palestinians than on the Kurds, or Native Americans, or the
Chechnyans, blah, blah. At first he tries to answer by saying "Well
I've written a lot about the Kurds..." Then he stops and sighs and
smiles, and says "Look, I'm not Amnesty International. I'm just one
guy." The questioners crack up, and the session is over.
Well, Pirsig is just one guy. And I seriously doubt that he would
find much to disagree with in the AAA statement. Maybe someone
should send it to him, and see what he says.
Best to all,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
-- InfoPro Consulting - The Professional Information Processors Custom Software Solutions for Windows, PDAs, and the Web Since 1983 Web Site: http://www.infoproconsulting.com "Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything." -- Henri Poincare' On 21 Jun 2004 at 7:56, Richard Loggins wrote: Ant, msh, Paul V, > Ant McWatt comments: > Pirsig goes absolutely down the > political line when discussing blacks in LILA i.e. > > ‘It is not immoral to speak against a person because > of his cultural characteristics if those cultural > characteristics are immoral. These are > changeable and they do matter. Blacks have no right > to violate social codes and call it "racism" when > someone tries to stop them, if those codes are not > racist codes. That is slander.’ > > As is clearly apparent, therefore, Pirsig is > courageously dealing with the issue of black > criminality from an impartial view on an > intellectual basis, neither being swayed by > supposedly ‘political correct’ intellectuals nor by > socially-orientated racists. Perhaps he is courageous and impartial, Ant, but I think his emphasis slants toward the opinion that "racism" (the scare quotes are his) is mostly a false charge leveled against whites by blacks. He hints that genuine racism exists, but he doesn't say enough about it to suggest that he aggrees with the part of the AAA statement that, "The tragedy in the United States has been that the policies and practices stemming from this worldview succeeded all too well in constructing unequal populations among Europeans, Native Americans, and peoples of African descent." Instead in Pirsig's view, the tragedy in the United States has been the paralysis caused by racist slander. Since Pirsig addresses the issue of black crime head on but doesn't even mention the effects of systemic racism on blacks themselves, its not too hard to see why bigots like Paul Vogel could find a certain kinship with the socio-political views of my hero, R.M. Pirsig :( Rich 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
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