Kevin, "I feel just as strongly that, according to the Metaphyics of Quality, war remains immoral. War and genocide are massive destructions of Dynamic Quality, from which nothing can be gained (except the prevention of loss). War may maintain stability on a static level, but it never increases creativity on a Dynamic level." While I totally agree with your sentiment and would much rather live in a world with no fighting, no racism, no ethnic cleansing, no war... I have a disagreement with your interpretation of Dynamic Quality: Pirsig uses an example in Lila of sitting on a stove as being the cutting edge of reality: A Dynamic Quality event... If that person didn't react and remained on that stove, that dynamic quality would eventually reduce our pipe-smoking chemistry teacher back to base elements of Carbon/Oxygen etc... thus destroying those static patterns of quality at the biological, social and intellectual levels.... ie. sitting on a stove is immoral according to Pirsig! As much as I abhor it, I think a bomb dropping on a persons head will be just as devastating to our chemistry professor as sitting on that stove! Therefore that bomb also has Dynamic Quality! Please don't say that the MOQ argues that war and genocide destroy Dynamic Quality! The MOQ says they are Dynamic Quality. Also, I don't recall any passage where it explicits says [Morality] increases creativity on a Dynamic level! Pirsig argues that saving an intellectual pattern is more moral than destroying a societal or biological pattern! War is (unfortunately) a tool created by an intellectual pattern to compete against other intellectual patterns by destroying social and biological patterns, thus it is MORAL, unfortunately it also destroys those peoples intellectual patterns thus it has IMMORAL elements..... I guess it is MORE MORAL to keep the intellectual pattern which leads to greater dynamic freedom... A real life example of MOQ in action: Serbia vs NATO. NATO has the specific aim of destroying MILITARY targets and avoiding civilian loss of life! ie. It is trying to avoid the indescriminant destruction of biological, social and intellectual patterns of Quality, while destroying those intellectual, social, biological and inorganic patterns which are trying to restrict Dynamic freedom (ethnic cleansing and the Milosovich's military might!!)!! Thus I argue that NATO being at war with Serbia is MORAL! Pirsig mentions something about separate morals regarding Static and Dynamic Quality just before him and Lila get into Nyark and the supermarket scene... but I can't remember it... L. -----Original Message----- From: Kevin Sanchez [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 1999 4:27 PM To: Lila Squad Subject: Re: LS The Choice: Dynamic/Cooperative Power or Static/Competitive Power? MOQ Online - http://www.moq.org
