John to Andre: But, it's always just so handy when your semantic distinctions follow along with your metaphysical ones, so I can see a good reason to use the term ego when discussing the concept of the isolated self, and the term "self" when referring to the platform of choice for the entity I happen to be, without ascribing said entity with any intrinsic values (ain't following Ham down THAT rabbit trail, nope, no sir) and a firm appreciation for the contextual ones.
Andre: Thanks John, yes, I think it is a useful distinction to make being mindful of their differing semantic, but also conventional distinctions. Pirsig, as far as I can remember only touched on the ego concept when discussing Chris' YMCA experience, which wasn't very favourable (not conducive to mountain climbing). I think it also has something to do with the way our education system functions though, to be fair, does depend on the trade/profession you choose. A study here in Holland recently found that young, newly graduated managers were little egotistical bastards, self centered and totally lacking in any kind of morality whatsoever. Their focus was on what THEY could get out of the situation. Their only morality was ME and WHAT I WANT TO GET OUT OF THIS LIFE...fuck the rest. Mind you, a study in the States of a few years ago found similar traits among middle and top managers in nearly every business. In psychiatric terms they were your classic personality disorders. I have worked with those (PD's in psychiatry) and they are not a nice set of patterns! But you gotta be tough in this life...if you don't screw them, they'll as hell are gonna screw you. Pure survival boy, the code of the West. 'If you don't fight you lose' (Redgum, Aussie band). Cheers 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/
