Jon said to dmb:
... How do you define conservatives or theists as anti-intellectual, unless
there is some absolute intellectual claim you have. If so, show it or prove it.
That sounds like a biased faith based statement to me. What's intellectually
sound about it just because its in your intellect?
dmb says:
Like I said, Pirsig recommends Campbell and "I think a lot can be learned about
the difference between the social and intellectual levels by looking at the
historical examples of the 20th century conflict between them". You'll find
quite a few of these examples in chapters 22 and 24 of Lila.
"The gigantic power of socialism and fascism, which have overwhelmed this
century, is explained by a conflict of levels of evolution. This conflict
explains the driving force behind Hitler not as an insane search for power but
as an all-consuming glorification of social authority and hatred of
intellectualism. His anti-semitism was fueled by anti-intellectualism. His
hatred of communists was fueled by anti-intellectualism. His exaltation of the
German volk was fueled by it. His fanatic persecution of any kind of
intellectual freedom was driven by it. In the United States the economic and
social upheaval was not so great as in Europe, but FDR and the New Deal,
nevertheless, became the center of a lesser storm between social and
intellectual forces. ...Now intellectuals were in a position to give orders to
America's finest and oldest and wealthiest social groups. 'That man,' as the
old aristocrats sometimes called Roosevelt, was turning the whole USA over to
foreign radicals, '
eggheads', 'Commies' and the like. He was a 'traitor to his class'."
Back when Pirsig was teaching in Bozeman, the Governor of Montana was a big fan
of an extremely right-wing group called "The John Birch Society". He had Pirsig
put on list of subversive people to be watched. These Birchers were so extreme
that William F. Buckley denounced them in 1962. They've been out of the
conservative mainstream for nearly 50 years but they're back. They hosted the
last Republican convention. Add the Birchers to the tea-baggers, the birthers,
the growth of right wing militia groups and the over-heated rhetoric of the
Republican leadership in the Senate and you can see a new storm brewing. I
think Pirsig's diagnosis is pretty easy to apply to current events because the
same underlying social-intellectual conflict is still going on.
Anti-intellectualism wears different clothes at different times but it's the
same guy underneath. Guess it's pretty obvious that I don't like that guy.
This is not "some absolute intellectual claim". I seriously doubt there is such
a thing. But it is a powerful explanatory tool and it's an important part of
the hierarchical structure of Pirsig's MOQ.
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