Platt to Andre: Yes, you're free to avoid McDonald's. That's the morality of a free market. Unless you would rather have some high-school dropout from the government tell you what you can and cannot eat.
Andre: Not sure what you are getting at here Platt. Both here and in some other other places of the world, these high-school drop outs end up working at McDonalds untill they are old enough to get the adult wage..they then get the sack. PLatt: The moral levels are opposed to one another. So your scenario is bogus. Andre: The scenario I was trying to paint was one of harmonious balance between the moral levels. Platt: First, the free market doesn't deliberately kill. Governments do that, sometimes necessarily to defeat biological criminals. Andre: The world of industrial espionage is alive and kicking and its internal workings do not appear very clean to me. Also, you may have heard of French Telecom (privatised) where the working conditions over the past 2 years have driven 17 workers to commit suicide. You may also have heard of the working conditions and 'rewards' (I don't even want to call them wages) at multi-nationals dealing in e.g. coffee, bananas, chocolate etc,etc.( in general, those working in our so called third-world countries...including China) We can quibble about 'deliberate' until the cows come home.Why do you think the Factory Acts of 1848 were introduced? Platt: Agree. That's exactly why socialism's central planners fail. Andre: Well Platt, taking China as an example, I get the impression that financially and economically this country is in a healthier state than the US of A. Pirsig may have argued that the socialists have inadvertently closed the door on DQ but boy, oh boy, China is booming and learning very, very fast........intelligently! Platt: Disagree. DQ is the most moral of all. "Its only perceived good is freedom and its only perceived evil is static quality itself-any pattern of one-sided fixed values that tries to contain and kill the ongoing free force of life." Andre: Now, unless I completely misunderstand your neo-con persuasion Platt this is exactly my beef (thanks Lu) with you. You DO only allow a pattern of one-sided fixed values...i.e the neo-con values and any variant on these, you dismiss out of hand as commie, lefty, do-goody trash. Platt: To me nothing is more compassionate that a system that provides goods and services that history has shown benefits mankind in countless ways and raises the standard of living for all. Andre: Yes, to you, providing the 'all' meet some basic, socially acceptable criteria such as deserving, loyal,hard working, healthy, etc, etc.(sort of Rigel's criteria). Platt: Problems arise when a cabal of intellectuals with power to enforce their ideas get together and think they know what's best for the rest of us. Andre: Apart from the obvious message here, I wonder what you see as the role/function of the intellectual level. Platt: That we have different views and different interpretations of the MOQ should not be surprising to anyone. The danger is in insisting there is one right way to think and to demonize those who are thought by some to stray from the party line Andre: I was unaware of the MoQ as having a 'party line'. Regards, 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/
