[Platt] the British teacher in Sudan facing 6months in prison and 40 lashes for allowing her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed being a current case in point.
[Ron] That is a rather good point of discussion, being imprisoned for associating the name of the prophet Mohammad with a teddy bear is something like being imprisoned for burning a flag in the United States. It's all about what that symbol means to the culture, to us it's just a teddy bear to them it's just a flag. I don't know if there is currently a law against burning the flag but there Are a lot of people who would vote it into law who are extremely offended By the action. All in the name of moral goodness. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ron Kulp Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 10:15 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [MD] subject/object: pragmatism [Platt] I argue for the superiority of a particular culture based on Pirsig's moral hierarchy, as he explained: "A culture that supports the dominance of social values over biological values is an absolutely superior culture to one that does not, and a culture that supports the dominance of intellectual values over social values is absolutely superior to one that does not. It is immoral to speak against a people because of the color of their skin, or any other genetic characteristic because these are not changeable and don't matter anyway. But 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." (Lila, 24) In other words, I think multiculturism based on the premise that all cultures are morally equal is bunk, the British teacher in Sudan facing 6 months in prison and 40 lashes for allowing her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed being a current case in point. {Ron] If anything this illustrates the need for caution in regard to these statements. There are Many factors involved in the success of a culture. And in generalized statements such as the one you posted, there is a huge Danger of doing just what you are implying. Justifying the concept of superiority. When I went looking for intellect, I found it was a process Of the individual and culture. So an intellectually superior culture is one Where the individual considers themselves free. They may not be free by Other cultural standards but by their own they are. Freedom is relative. The dangerous thing about quotes out of context is the implication The quote makes without the supporting body of work. Having read Pirsig and weighed that statement against the body Of his work, I feel he was making a general statement about The evolutionary process of social values. I really hope He's not advocating cultural elitism it makes him no better Than someone who justifies racial superiority on similar Grounds. MoQ would amount to an enlightened gentler Nazi Regime of cultural superiority. All other cultures judged inferior by MoQ standards would be justifiably extinguished as per the levels of evolutionary progress toward better-ness. Based on the grounds that it is deemed immoral by our standards Of intellect and freedom by our cultural definition of those terms. 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/ 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/
