[Marsha to Ham]
It would be more like seeing would be unique from your individual
eyes and point-of-view... But still no self.... What would you say about this?
[Arlo interjects]
Well, I think you are pointing in the right direction, if I
understand you. As biologically-bounded beings we are (of course)
bound to have unique experiences as we navigate different
perspective-bound paths "in the world". My eyes reflect patterns to
my brain that are unique to the angle, light, distance, etc. between
them and the patterns in my view. But, happily!, this
biologically-bounded unique trajectory is not all we are. No, no, no.
In the process of appropriating what Pirsig refers to as "the
collective consciousness", we encode our experiences using social
symbols, and as such the patterns that amass in our brain as
combinations of the social/individual "reality" of our being. The
"self", as such, is a social construct, one that we learn to refer to
to organize our thoughts and memories; retaining uniqueness by virtue
of our biologically-bound apartness, but retaining sociality by
virtue of our culturally-bound assimilation. That is, we construct
our "selves" and our thoughts socially, but this social construction
builds from the unique, biologically-bound sense input our body receives.
This is why those who beat the "individual v. collective drum" are
wasting their time chasing after, what is apparent to be, a
politically-guided ideological strawman. The entirety of the MOQ,
from top to bottom, is a dance of larger patterns forming from the
collective activity of smaller, individual patterns. It is this
dialogic activity that should be the focus of inquiry. Isolating any
"individual" pattern is merely a matter of focus. A amoeba is an
"individual pattern" until you focus in more and realize it is a
collective of smaller "individual" patterns engaged in a beautiful
collective dance.
But of course for saying this, the ideologues of The Glorious
Individual will simply start bleating "evil collectivist!". Wait and see...
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