Brilliant DMB, My attempt at subtlety (drivel you'd call it) - agreeing but excepting fault - is so much less effective against Platt's "anti-intellectualism" than your straight talk.
BTW am I the only person who watch both Fox and CNN news on TV this lunchtime and was perplexed on a "slow-news-day" that yesterday's terrorist killing of 200+ Iraqi Kurds in Mosul didn't even get a mention ?!? Fox I can understand ... but. Ian On 8/15/07, david buchanan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Platt said: > Pirsig, I hasten to add, pointed out that modern intellect, in its attempt > to guide society, contains a fatal flaw, namely, an inability to acknowledge > the existence of values. Thus, the "evolutionary leap" has fallen into an > abyss. > > dmb says: > I'd say your reasoning contains a fatal flaw, Platt. And it would bother me > so much if you hadn't already been corrected on this point several dozen > times. By your logic, flaws in social level values should compell us to > embrace the laws of the jungle so that the world is run by rape and pillage. > By your logic, the negative side of the internal combustion engine should > compell us all to return to riding horses. By your logic, we should accept > devolution and return to a monarchical form of government. (Franco, the > Spainish Fascist dictator tried to restore the monarch on his way out in > 1975. The King of England was a big fan of Hitler. Henry Ford was a pen-pal > Hitler.) See, the thing about American reactionaries is that they look very, > very American. Its a sort of hyper-muscular assertion of what would > otherwise be normal social level values and so its hard to get people to be > alarmed about it. Its like trying to get people to be afraid of hot dogs, > apple pie and dear old mom. Its like trying to get people to see that having > a bible-thumping cowboy in the whitehouse is a recipie for disaster. I mean, > just look at the results. These guys are taking a huge dump on the > constitution, on the democratic process, on our rights, our system of checks > and balances, on artists and intellectuals. They've even drawn complaints > from academic journals for their atttepts to interfere with what is allowed > to be published. They've altered scientific reports for political and > financial reasons. Not to mention all the facts they had to ignore in order > to make a case for war with Iraq. Now we're fighting the wrong war, don't > have the resources to fight the actual enemy and everyone on the planet > thinks Americans are as stupid as is Bush. Its a huge disaster. > > And yet there are millions of Platts out there cheering them on. And in this > case we are talking about a flaw that has quite literally been fatal to many > thousands of people. > > But having your input on this point does serve a purpose. It allows us to > see what standard American anti-intellectualism looks like. As a bad > example, you're very good. > > dmb > > _________________________________________________________________ > Find a local pizza place, movie theater, and more….then map the best route! > http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&ss=yp.bars~yp.pizza~yp.movie%20theater&cp=42.358996~-71.056691&style=r&lvl=13&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=950607&encType=1&FORM=MGAC01 > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
