My new year's resolution (to walk away from MoQ.Discuss) didn't last long, but since there is still a small handful of real people involved, I'll venture an opinion ....
Multiculturalism scam, global warming scam, how about the scam scam ? Some wag once said ... "95% of X is crap, because 95% of everything is crap". Multiculturalism crap, global warming crap, 9/11 crap, "war on xxx" crap, how about just plain crap ? Anything that reaches public consciousness ... any intellectual level pattern that degenerates into a social one .... is full of rhetoric, spin, hypocrisy, crap, you name it. The bigger the issue, the greater the crap content and issues don't come much bigger than freedom or democracy, so guess how much crap there. Since Deists met Darwinists on the front pages, biological evolution is largely crap. Since the search for the Higgs Boson became a matter of public funding, guess what, even fundamental physics is mostly crap. Physical, biological, social, intellectual ... it's all crap if all we aspire to is the kind of social patterns that pass for free (sic) speech and reasoned (sic) debate. As Ron's last comment says if we don't recognize (and discount / rise-above) our cultural bias in the way we reason, then debate can never proceed (human evolution becomes stymied) beyond the socio-cultural level - the giant wins again and always will. We are just back to the social / collective / individual / intellectual confusion. As Mel put it ... with masterful understated wit ... it feels a bit cognitively dissonant. Regards Ian PS - It's been interesting to follow ex MoQ'er Sam (Norton) ... campaigning on the "big issues" ... he recently summarized his changing perspective on those - his changing level of scepticism on 9/11, global-warming etc ... It was that which prompted me to respond in this thread in fact, when I saw its own evolution. On Sat, Jan 3, 2009 at 5:04 AM, X Acto <[email protected]> wrote: > Platt, > I see this as a very difficult distinction in those terms, > but I believe knowing you have cultural bias is the begining > of a wider understanding. > -ron > > > > > ________________________________ > From: Platt Holden <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 4:12:22 PM > Subject: Re: [MD] Multiculturalism scam > > > Ron: >> I however have no problem with stating that Pirsigs quote : >> >> "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." >> >> Is faulty. A culture IS the dominance of social values over biological >> values, >> and Intellectual values are defined by the culture they emerge from. > > Some cultures support biological values, like cultures that encourage the > killing of infidels. > > Cultures that support truth and individual rights (intellectual values) > over > collectivism and religion (social values) are morally superior: > > "But what the larger intellectual structure of the Metaphysics of Quality > makes clear is that this political battle of science to free itself from > domination by social moral codes was in fact a moral battle! It was the > battle of a higher, intellectual level of evolution to keep itself from > being devoured by a lower, social level of evolution." (Lila, 24) > > Ron: >> Therefore judging cultures by this standard is unequivicably bias >> and unsound. > > I have no problem judging a free market culture that protects individual > and property rights to be morally superior to a totalitarian theocracy. In > that comparison you bet I'm biased. > > Platt > > > > 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/
