Greetings Platt,
I think this quote is more helpful:
"The Metaphysics of Quality says there are not just two codes of morals,
there are actually five: inorganic-chaotic, biological-inorganic,
social-biological, intellectual-social, and Dynamic-static. This last, the
Dynamic-static code, says what's good in life isn't defined by society or
intellect or biology. What's good is freedom from domination by any static
pattern, but that freedom doesn't have to be obtained by the destruction of
the patterns themselves."
(LILA, Chapter 24)
Maybe I would naturally feel more patriotic if the country was being lead by
men and women of the sort that framed the Bill of Rights and Constitution
instead of the mental midgets that occupy the White House and Congress
today. As the one who decided (The Decider) to go to war in Iraq, Bush is
as responsible for as many deaths as Husseins. For the moment, the
Intellectuals in this country have lost their minds. That is why I, too, am
happy with the Supreme Courts recent decision.
Marsha
----- Original Message -----
From: "Platt Holden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2008 5:14 PM
Subject: Re: [MD] Soldiers as victims
Hi Marsha,
Not at all. Pirsig is helpful here, citing individual rights, such as those
described in our Constitution's Bill of Rights (and recently upheld by the
Supreme Court), as resulting from the moral supremacy of the intellectual
level over the social level. He further makes it clear that the social level
(patriotism) serves an important function in keeping biological forces,
used by totalitarian ideologies to abolish the independence of the
individual (Germany, Japan, Russia, North Vietnam, North Korea, Hussein's
Iraq), from dominating, warning that, "Where biological values are
undermining social values intellectuals must identify social behavior, not
matter its ethnic connection, and support it all the way without restraint.
Intellectuals must find biological behavior, no matter what its ethnic
connection, and limit or destroy destructive biological patterns with
complete moral ruthlessness, the way a doctor destroys germs, before those
biological patterns destroy civilization itself." (Lila, 24) So I have no
problem with social level patriotism when that patriotism is directed at
preserving our individual rights.
Platt
On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 9:43 AM, Marsha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From Wikipedia:
Anti-patriotism is the ideology that opposes patriotism; it usually refers
to those with cosmopolitan views and is usually of an anti-nationalist
nature as well. Normally, anti-patriotism stems from the belief that
patriotism is wrong since it forces people born in a country, whether they
like it or not, regardless of their individuality, to love the country or
sacrifice themselves for it; consequently, people who oppose patriotism
may
oppose its authoritarianism, while others may believe that patriotism
leads
to war because of geopolitical disputes so it may be viewed from a
pacifist
or anti-militarist point of view. Usually, this term is used in a
pejorative
way by those who defend patriotism or nationalism, and terms such as
cosmopolitanism or world citizenship may be used to avoid the bias that
comes from the typical usage of the word anti-patriot or
anti-patriotism.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-patriotism
Platt,
Have you become anti-individuality?
Marsha
----- Original Message ----- From: "Platt Holden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2008 11:09 AM
Subject: [MD] Soldiers as victims
Hi All,
In Lila Chapter 7 Pirsig describes how the killing fields of WW I
destroyed
Victorian morality:
"The period ended when, after having defined for all time what 'Truth" and
"Virtue" and "Quality" are, the Victorians and their Edwardian successors
sent an entire generation of children into the trenches of World War I on
behalf of these ideals. And murdered them. For nothing. That war was the
natural consequence of Victorian moral egotism. When it was over the
children who survived never got tired of laughing at Charlie Chaplin
comedies of those elderly people with the silk hats and too many clothes
and noses up in the air. Young people of the twenties read Hemingway, Dos
Passos and Fitzgerald, drank bootleg gin, danced tangos into the night,
drove fast roadsters, made illicit love, called themselves a "lost
generation," and never wanted anything to remind them of Victorian
morality
again." (Lila, 7)
But Thomas Sowell writing in The Washington Times presents another side of
the story:
"In France, after World War I, the teachers´ unions launched a systematic
purge of textbooks in order to promote internationalism and pacifism.
Books
that depicted the courage and self-sacrifice of soldiers who had defended
France against the German invaders where called `bellicose´ books to be
banished from the schools. . . . The once epic story of French soldiers'
heroic defense against German invaders at Verdun, despite massive French
casualties, was now transformed into a story of horrible suffering by all
the soldiers at Verdun -- French and German alike. In short, soldiers
once
depicted as national heroes were now depicted as victims - and just like
victims in other nations´ armies. . . . Did it matter? Does patriotism
matter? France, where pacifism and internationalism were strongest,
became
a classic example of how much it can matter. . . . During World War II,
France collapsed after just six weeks of fighting and surrendered to Nazi
Germany. . . Charles de Gaulle, Francois Mauriac, and other Frenchmen
blamed a lack of national will or general moral decay for the sudden and
humiliating collapse of France in 1940. "
Sowell concluded with a sobering question:
"Our media are busy verbally transforming American combat troops from
heroes into victims, just as the French intelligentsia did - with the
added
twist of calling this `supporting our troops.´ Will that matter? Time will
tell."
Reminds me of the Hippie chant of the 60´s during the Cold War expressing
a
similar lack of patriotism - "Better red than dead."
The full text of the Sowell article is at:
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/04/does-patriotism-matter/
Regards, Platt
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