Hi Bo,
> Platt:
> > Since the brujo was tortured for his ideas and behavior by the social
> > priests I see his example as an individual vs. society struggle. It was
> > the brujo's intellect after all that caused the societal shift and his
> > elevation from an outcast to leader.
Bo:
> Societies necessarily consists of individuals and there are those
> who are more strong-willed than others and if ruthless enough
> they may become leaders. In the old social level days kings and
> such, in our intellect-dominated societies only presidents and
> prime ministers ;-) No, the individual vs. society isn't always
> intellect vs. society, but - again - because "homo sapens" is the
> biological carrier of social vlue and society is the base of intellect
> there's always an individual involved.
According to Pirsig individual contrarians, like the brujo, can be
catalysts of societal change:
"Sometimes the insane and the contrarians and the ones who are the closest
to suicide are the most valuable people society has. They may be precursors
of social change. They've taken the burdens of the culture onto themselves,
and in their struggle to solve their own problems they're solving problems
for the culture as well." (Lila, 29)
Since their struggle (their own problems) are individual and intellectual,
I see them as battling static social patterns enforced by priests and the
state.
As for those who may think Pirsig doesn't acknowledge the existence and
importance of the individual (self) the following from ZAMM should prove
of interest:
"My personal feeling is that this is how any further improvement of the
world will be done: by individuals making Quality decisions and that's all.
God, I don't want to have any more enthusiasm for big programs full of
social planning for big masses of people that leave individual Quality out.
These can be left alone for a while. There's a place for them but they've
got to be built on a foundation of Quality within the individuals involved.
We've had that individual Quality in the past, exploited it as a natural
resource without knowing it, and now it's just about depleted. Everyone's
just about out of gumption. And I think it's about time to return to the
rebuilding of this American resource...individual worth. There are
political reactionaries who've been saying something close to this for
years. I'm not one of them, but to the extent they're talking about real
individual worth and not just an excuse for giving more money to the rich,
they're right. We do need a return to individual integrity, self-reliance
and old-fashioned gumption. We really do."
Regards,
Platt
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