Steve, I guess I'm just gonna have to beg to differ. To my mind, Pirsig addressed love and caring as eloquently and more precisely than any other writer I've come across. Maybe he didn't use the exact words you're looking for, but to my understanding, that's the whole point of it all. For instance, when he says:
"They all look like they're in a funeral procession. Once in a while one gives a quick glance and then looks away expressionlessly, as if minding his own business, as if embarrassed that we might have noticed he was looking at us. I see it now because we've been away from it for a long time. The driving is different too. The cars seem to be moving at a steady maximum speed for in-town driving, as though they want to get somewhere, as though what's here right now is just something to get through. The drivers seem to be thinking about where they want to be rather than where they are. I know what it is! We've arrived at the West Coast! We're all strangers again! Folks, I just forgot the biggest gumption trap of all. The funeral procession! The one everybody's in, this hyped-up, fuck-you, supermodern, ego style of life that thinks it owns this country. We've been out of it for so long I'd forgotten all about it." What he's bemoaning is the loss of love in our society. No, he doesn't call it that exactly, it WOULD be too Hallmarky, but that is what he's describing exactly. And if Quality isn't caring, then I don't know what it is. Which, admittedly, has been an accusation I've heard before, but nevermind all that. I know what I like. Here's how <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYWx5Qlmhac&feature=related> I larn ya that song On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 7:22 PM, Steven Peterson <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi John, > > You said: > > > It is interesting to me too, what you point out ... > > Steve wrote: > > What is interesting to me once again is that despite the fact that > >> "all the great spiritual leaders have held it as centrally important" > >> in discussing morality, Pirsig does not talk about empathy, > >> compassion, and love to explain morality. > > > > John: > > I guess what you mean by "does not talk about" is defining it exactly. > > Because in my opinion, his entire oeuvre revolves around the very thing. > > Because Quality IS caring. Thus love IS morality. And since he spent a > > couple of books talking about it, I have a hard time following what you > mean > > by this. > > > Steve: > When I say that Pirsig does not talk about love, empathy, and > compassion. I mean that as far as I know, the words "empathy" and > "compassion" are not in his texts, and the word "love" is only used in > ordinary "he loved chocolate cake" sorts of ways. But far more > importantly, it is not just a matter of not using those particular > words which the "great spiritual leaders" have used to talk about > morality in Pirsig's talk about morality. He doesn't deal with those > concepts by other words either. He doesn't talk about moral progress > as self-enlargement, as the expansion of the circle of concern, the > increased ability to sympathize with wider and wider groups of people > from self to kin to proximate community to broader communities of > humans while being more and more inclusive in who can count as a human > deserving of respect. You say you disagree, but I doubt you can find > any passages that talk about what the "great spiritual leaders" talked > about in other Pirsigian terms. > > Best, > Steve > 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
