[DMB] Am I being too harsh or are you being too nice? [Arlo] The fault is on my end, for sure. I get quite frustrated with the petty carnival mirror tricks, and the endless distortions and hostility, and that was my entire point, that 95% of this is noise. Noise wasted trying to "prove" Pirsig "meant" this or that, the incessant need for interpretative legitimacy.
[DMB] Mark isn't the only poster who seems to be confused about the difference between social level authority and intellectual authority. [Arlo] And I think the hostility you face, and the relentless distortions, are part and parcel of the need to have everything everyone says be equally legitimate. In the end, of course, our ideas stand on their merit, as it should be, and every voice has an equally legitimate opportunity to make its ideas known and understood. As I've said, however, this continues to befuddle many, and like Bo they remain trapped in the rhetorical morass of trying to prove why their ideas ARE Pirsig's rather than why their ideas are BETTER than Pirsig's. The hypocrisy of this, as I'm sure you see, is that the same people who demand on one hand that all "interpretations" are equally valid, and see "authority" as undermining this, on the other hand seek nothing more than to legitimize their views via claiming alignment with Pirsig's authority. A real anti-authoritarian would have no problem standing up and saying "Pirsig is wrong, I am right, and here is why". Honestly, most days its like a bunch of kids with daddy issues (and I think this explains the visible envy generated when daddy says something praising someone else). I mean, when the narrative starts to become "Pirsig is a weak interpreter of Pirsig", we've really hit rock bottom. When Pirsig is consider a poor authority on his own ideas, we've got nowhere to go. Its all carnival mirrors and hostility and distortions. I mean, how DARE I even suggest that Ron DiSanto and Tom Steele have done more to enrich Pirsig's ideas that someone posting youtube links on the forum! Shame on me! 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
