DMB stated August 24th: >Its strange how [Platt] parrots talk-radio and loves the law and order >stuff, especially considering the way outcasts and contrarians play the >hero in Pirsig's books. Pirsig is anything but an advocate of conformity. >As Emerson said in THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR in 1837, "Imitation is suicide". >(Guess what we're reading in my Pragmatism class.) He says, "the >self-directed" must "defer never to the popular cry" and live in a "state >of virtual hostility" to society. This struck me as very similar to the >MOQ's portrait of the clash of social and intellectual values but he also >seems to express the idea the Dynamic Quality is better than either of >those. And that's what I wanted to add. > >Emerson's piece does far more than make a case for good, independent >American scholarship. He looks more like a mystic to me and in the portrait >he paints of the scholar he asks the intellectual to be a saint, an >enlightened person, a genuine and authentic person, an artist and an >original thinker. I was quite humbled and astonished by it. He says, "The >one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul." The sort of creative >genius, he says, "is the sound estate of every man, In its essence it is >progressive. ...springing spontaneous from the mind's own sense of good and >fair." (Need we ask anyone, Phaedrus?) "In the right state he is Man >Thinking. In the degenerate state ...a mere thinker, or still worse, the >parrot of other men's thinking..."
Ant McWatt asks: You don't mean like regurgitating talk-radio show propaganda, by any chance? (BTW, if I ever own a parrot, I will call him "Platt"). DMB continued August 24th: >Books, he says, "are for nothing but to inspire". "Undoubtedly there is a >right way of reading, so it be sternly subordinated. Man Thinking must not >be subdued by his instruments." This is the sort of stuff that made him >sound like a mystic and he touts Swedenborg (Named in Lila as a mystic) at >the end of he piece, which would support the notion too. > >Following up on this hunch, I discovered this piece was written just before >he started reading the Vedas and other Eastern texts. Maybe his later stuff >reflects that and is even closer to the MOQ. We're reading Emerson as a >sort of proto-Pragmatist. He looks like a pragmatist and he influenced >William James especially. Henry James, the father of William, was also a >Swedenborgian. I guess that had some influence on him too. Ant McWatt comments: This all sounds very good. DMB continued August 24th: >On Feb 29th, 1860 they all met at a secret meeting and agreed that slavery >had to be abolished. They all agreed with the popular motto of the day, "we >should fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here", >even though it didn't make much sense on the eve of the civil war. They >also agreed that we should support our troops by shopping as often as >possible. Each of them named Jesus as their favorite philosopher. Why? >Their belief in healing miracles allowed them to oppose socialized >medicine. In fact, they often intentionally misquoted him as saying "let >the children suffer" instead of "suffer the children". "No cash value", >William would sometimes add. Then they'd laugh their pragmatic heads off. >That's what Platt said he got from Wikipedia, anyway. Platt then asked (in a type of ad hominine way) August 24th: What is he talking about? Or, what is he smoking? Anyone? Dr McCommielover replies: I don't know but I sure would like some! . _________________________________________________________________ Get Pimped! FREE emoticon packs from Windows Live - http://www.pimpmylive.co.uk 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/
