Mary and all:
I'd add to Andre's addition.
One of the problems with our technological world is that we're continuing to
use intellect for it's old original purpose, to find food and detect danger.
The result is an exponential acceleration of crap at the expense of the natural
world. Changing that status is a big part of what motivates the desire to
expand our modes of rationality so that we don't do things in such a shallow,
greedy, ugly way.
Have you seen "The Story of Stuff"? It has nothing to do with the MOQ per se,
but it gets at this idea of a more enlightened kind of materialism. Instead of
tons of tacky junk, she says, we should have more reverence for our stuff, more
personal engagement with our material possessions.
The rights listed in our law and in the Pirsig quote are HUMAN rights, to be
sure. But you'll notice how they all protect the freedom of the intellect
itself. They're all about giving the truth a chance to be known and heard and
wrestled with publicly. They're about restraining power from interfering with
that freedom. Why? Because that's where the improvements will be formulated.
That's where new philosophies will be born, where new scientific theories will
be hatched and new religious geniuses will have to employ around the clock
security.
But seriously, these human rights are compassionate and that's more than enough
to be in favor of them. What's just as compelling, though, is this desire to
protect our best chance at a better future. Its job is to direct the
development of society, I think, so that these rights are not just our ideal
but actually and indeed the central organizing principle. If we really wanted
300,000,000 free-thinking American citizens, our education budget would be as
big as our defense budget. For starters.
> Mary to Ian:
>
> Digging ever deeper... So, Ian, I gotta ask ya (and DMB and Bo and
> > all) WHAT is the purpose of the Intellectual Level. If we can agree
> > that each level is something that has "taken off on a purpose of its
> > own" and achieved "levelhood" because it wants/desires/values something
> > different from its parent level, then what is the Intellectual Level
> > after? What does it really value that's different from the Social
> > Level? Don't pop off an answer too quickly, you guys. Think about
> > this. I am... still.
>
> Andre replied:
> Don't you read dmb's posts Mary?:
> dmb: "Freedom of speech; freedom of assembly, of travel; trial by jury;
> habeas corpus; government by consent - these 'human rights' are all
> intellectual-vs-society issues. According to the Metaphysics of Quality these
> 'human rights' have not just a sentimental basis, but a rational,
> metaphysical basis. They are essential to the evolution of a higher level of
> life from a lower level of life. They are for real." (Lila 307)
>
> But I get the idea that you (and Bodvar, judging by his response to you) want
> something else again?
>
> What is it I wonder, if it is not making this world (including its
> people..yeah us nasties)a little better, you know, improving it a little, a
> little fairer, a little more harmonious. I mean, no matter how hard you try
> to force a square peg into a round hole, you are stuck with the notion that
> we are composed of all four PoV's. And the SOL certainly does not think so,
> that is why the intellectual level as SOL has such a weird (can't express it
> in any other way) 'status'.
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