Pirsig's philosophical position justifies everything I love -- liberty, individualism, personal responsibility, creativity and openness to DQ. But the intellectuals who took over society succeeded in "screwing everything up" as Pirsig explains in Lila. Why ignore his analysis and conclusion?
Regards, Platt On 16 Apr 2010 at 3:56, Horse wrote: > Very interesting Platt. > > This is what you want to return to isn't it: > Before Wilson´s time academicians had been minor and peripheral within > the Victorian > power structure. Intelligence and knowledge were considered a high > manifestation of social > achievement, but intellectuals were not expected to run society itself. > They were valued servants > of society, like ministers and doctors. They were expected to decorate > the social parade, not lead > it. Leadership was for practical, businesslike "men of affairs." > > And this is what you hate: > Few Victorians suspected what was coming: that within a few years the > intellectuals they idealized as the best representatives of > their high culture would turn on them and destroy that culture with > contempt. > > How dare these servants, these Intellectual traitors not know their > place in society! > Shame on the intellect that it should seek independence from social > dominance. > And shame on Pirsig for producing a philosophical position that > justifies everything that you hate. > > > > On 16/04/2010 02:33, [email protected] wrote: > > The left-wing attitude, well represented here, is that the academy is the > > exclusive domain of intellectualism. Such an attitude is laughable on its > > face. What's more, anti-intellectualism is the theme of Chapters 22 and > > 24 of Lila, a theme which Pirsig sums up neatly in saying, "It was this > > intellectual level that was screwing everything up." To ignore the damage > > intellectuals have done to society in modern times is to ignore one of the > > main messages of the MOQ. So don't give me all this cheering for > > academic intellectuals. I agree with Pirsig that they are much more a > > problem than a solution. > > > > Platt > > > > On 15 Apr 2010 at 16:06, david buchanan wrote: > > > > > >> dmb says: > >> There are some good reasons to complain about "the academy" and > >> "philosophology" and then there are bad reasons to complain. The > >> biggest, baddest reason is just ordinary, right-wing anti-intellectualism. > >> That's not even a reasoned position. It's just an attitude. 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/md/archives.html
