Dear All, Thank you for assisting me in trying to weave myself out of this slump, this mental block as I described it. After a while I remembered Pirsig's way of dealing with this...take a break, have a coffee...stare at the thing for a while. Well, I have and something came to me.
Whether is is real or perceived I am concerned about the 'DQ' part of reality within the intellectual formulation called MoQ (Pirsigs own words).Maybe disagreements will remain about interpretations, however, for myself, I would like some clarity. To save the MoQ from the tentacles of SOM is what inspired the following thoughts: We keep on talking about the 4 static levels, the inorganic,organic,social and intellectual. And the 4 codes of morals: the inorganic-chaotic, biological- inorganic, social-biological, and intellectual-social. We are 'stuck' (please bear with me) at the intellectual level. Pirsig himself has described the MoQ as a Static Intellectual Pattern of Values...an intellectual formulation. There are many intellectual PoV's identified but the one of concern to me, of course, is the SOM and its derivatives. For someone who describes his own discovery as somewhat akin to a Copernican revolution (sorry I've lost the page number) and to then place this breakthrough simply beside the SOM as a 'competing' intellectual pattern is incomprehensible to me and sells this discovery very short indeed! And I felt and still feel very uncomfortable with this. Reading your posts, sharing my reluctance/ confusion, wanting to believe Bodvar's reasoning,listening to others, getting feedback about: 'being', awareness', 'essentialism', lots of 'isms'etc, etc...I'm thinking: How am I going to make sense of all this stuff?' How am I going to sell this to my family'? How am I going to explain if not to my family or friends...to myself? ( When Pirsig says that even a child knows all this quality stuff!!). And then the first rememberance: There is another level above the ones already mentioned: the 5th code of morals: the Dynamic-static one! (Lila p307) and then it dawned on me...that is where the MoQ is!! It is the level earlier identified as the 'code of Art' (Lila p167). THE CODE OF ART = THE METAPHYSICS OF QUALITY!!!!!!!!! IT IS THE 5TH LEVEL CODE OF MORALS!! DYNAMIC MORALITY!! Pirsig argued/proved and rationally showed that 'art' is not a 'frill': that it underlines its importance! ( op cit, 167) The Dynamic-static code,says 'what is good in life isn't defined by society *or* intellect or biology. And all of a sudden I found Static/Dynamic quality again (the very 'foundation' upon which this MoQ is built and deduced)...not in the intellectual formulation (as Pirsig has it) no, but as a code of dynamic morality arising out of intellect...supreme to it. (I can accept SQ as Intell. PoV's but then they are high quality PoV's and SOM is low quality). And in this formulation they are kept within overall/ overriding Quality. The MoQ is thus saved from attack and from being undermined by whatever intellectual pattern is around at present. The MoQ does not only subsume but also rises above this pattern.It remains dynamic. The MoQ can claim supremacy over the intellectual level. (this may be disputed by some of you). With the 'code of Art' as the 5th level, it has supremacy over Intellectual PoV's and DQ is saved. Given this rememberance lots of things fell into place: ZMM and Lila became inextricably linked. Lila not just a 'follow up' to further work out the Quality idea...no, they are an integral part of eachother. Furthermore Pirsig has invited us to become ARTISTS, each in our own way. ( remember the 'rotissary assembly as sculpting' conversation at the De Weeses' ( look, whether this is artistically ligitimate or not is not the point...the point was that Pirsig showed that YOU can put the thing together in your own way and that there is not just one, prescribed way, to do it)...the motorcycle maintenance...of course it is not (only) the machine you are working on ...the way Pirsig suggests a change to our education system...and the way we learn and (re)discover our own potential (again in ZMM). All these things fall into place by caring, experiencing, and renewing each and every moment of our lives. Latching to make a foothold for the next step, creating our own works of art...in our work,our hobbies, our relationship with ourselves, with others and the universe. For some this may be 'old hat'. If it is..well this is my way of experiencing the MoQ...not too many words and concepts I do not understand..I mean I would like to make it clear to my 85 year old mother!! and my 24 year old daughter.I can now make clear to them that hey are both artists, in my mother doing her things and my daughter doing hers and, I think this is a good beginning for an MoQ discussion. Again I ask you to point to where I have erred or where I have gone totally off the rails. For now, thank you all: Bodvar, Platt, Ham, Steve, Ian,Ron, Mel, Chris,Marsha ( oh shit, I shouldn't do this... I'm bound to forget to mention one or two... ( you are in my heart okay????!) etc. etc. 'And we all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun, yes we all shine on ( John Lennon, Instant Karma) For what it is worth. Andre 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/
