Platt GOF = Good Old Fashioned (ie pre Pirsig / MoQ) Ian
On Sun, Sep 5, 2010 at 11:29 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > What does GOF mean? > > On 5 Sep 2010 at 23:03, Ian Glendinning wrote: > > I can't tell what your point is Platt, since both quotes (Pirsig and > Wilson) are filled with the same irony when using the words > intellectual and enlightened. > > That GOF enlightenment (ie dumb) intellectuals are not actually as > enlightened or intellectual as they think they are. > > Ian > > On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 4:21 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: >> All: >> >> A prophetic passage in Lila poses the question, "How do you tell right from >> wrong?": >> >> "When people asked, 'If no culture, including a Victorian culture, can say >> what >> is right and what is wrong, then how can we ever know what is right and what >> is >> wrong?' the answer was, 'That's easy. Intellectuals will tell you. >> Intellectuals, unlike members of studiable cultures, know what they're >> talking >> and writing about, because what they say isn't culturally relative. What they >> say is absolute. This is because intellectuals follow science, which is >> objective.' "(Lila, 22) >> >> Lest you think PIrsig was exaggerating or just blowing smoke, consider the >> following from an academic at Boston University: >> >> "At stake are the most important questions: What is the right way for human >> beings to live? By what standard is anything true or good? Who gets to decide >> what? Implicit in Wilson's words and explicit in our ruling class's actions >> is >> the dismissal, as the ways of outdated "fathers," of the answers that most >> Americans would give to these questions. This dismissal of the American >> people's intellectual, spiritual, and moral substance is the very heart of >> what >> our ruling class is about. Its principal article of faith, its claim to the >> right to decide for others, is precisely that it knows things and operates by >> standards beyond others' comprehension. >> >> "While the unenlightened ones believe that man is created in the image and >> likeness of God and that we are subject to His and to His nature's laws, the >> enlightened ones know that we are products of evolution, driven by chance, >> the >> environment, and the will to primacy. While the un-enlightened are stuck with >> the antiquated notion that ordinary human minds can reach objective judgments >> about good and evil, better and worse through reason, the enlightened ones >> know >> that all such judgments are subjective and that ordinary people can no more >> be >> trusted with reason than they can with guns. Because ordinary people will >> pervert reason with ideology, religion, or interest, science is "science" >> only >> in the "right" hands. Consensus among the right people is the only standard >> of >> truth. Facts and logic matter only insofar as proper authority acknowledges >> them.That is why the ruling class is united and adamant about nothing so much >> as its right to pronounce definitive, "scientific" judgment on whatever it >> chooses." >> >> The above from an article entitled, "America's Ruling Class -- and the Perils >> of Revolution,." located at: >> >> http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the/print >> >> Platt >> 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 >> > 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 > 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 > 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
