This is a tangential issue and nobody asked BUT please notice what Pirsig (via
David Granger) is saying about relationship between academia and
civilization....
>From Granger's paper, called "Dewey and Pirsig in Education":
-------------------------------------------------
The student[s'] biggest problem was a slave mentality which had been built into
[them] by years of carrot-and-whip grading, a mule mentality which said, 'If
you don't whip me, I won't work.' [They] didn't get whipped. [They] didn't
work. And the cart of civilization, which [they] supposedly [were] being
trained to pull, was just going to have to creak along a little slower without
[them]. (ZMM, 175)
Ironically, Pirsig thought, this is in direct contradiction to the academy’s
claim that civilization “is best served not by mules but by free men” (ZMM,
175). And education is supposedly the means to this freedom. As tragic as this
slave mentality sounds, Pirsig saw that it is unavoidable only if one presumes
that the cart of civilization must be propelled by something outside itself, by
disinterested mule-selves. Whether these mules are in front of or behind the
cart matters little here. In either position, they bespeak of stubborn,
laboring beasts – the polar opposite of artistically-engaged human beings --
beasts that have no immediate investment in or sense of connection to the
larger cart of civilization."
----------------------------------------------------
As I read this, proper education is of no importance unless you're interested
in maintaining civilization. The academy, or rather the church of reason,
supposedly says that civilization "is best served not by mules by free men"
(free people) and it supposedly offers education as "the means to this
freedom". And what does it mean to NOT be a mule? What does it mean to be free,
to liberated by this education? I suppose it's just like the man says. This
kind of freedom means that it totally matters whether you're "in front of or
behind the cart" of civilization. In fact, you're an "artistically-engaged
human being" with a personal "investment in or sense of connection to the
larger cart of civilization." The mules say that all this "matters little".
"The stubborn, laboring beasts," by contrast, "have no immediate investment in
or sense of connection to the larger cart of civilization."
Same as it ever was, I think we need throw out the money lenders. I mean, the
church of reason has become corrupt in the same sort of way. For the most part,
people think of higher education levels as the means to a higher income.
Otherwise, most dads figure, college is a waste of money. That's not the kind
of calculus that propers civilization forward, obviously. It's not crazy. Seems
sensible, hard to argue with common sense realism. Blah, blah, blah, as
everyone knows. But it's tragically narrow-minded and short-sighted and if
everyone thought like that the whole freakin' deal would crap out in a hurry.
In fact, that might be what's already happening. Or maybe that's just how
stupid it is in America. Sigh.
Look, I know we've all had some hell from bullies and tyrants at school. But
that's not what Pirsig (or Dewey or Granger or any other serious person) is
concerned about with respect to the church of reason or with respect to Western
rationality. This is about some serious shit that is not terribly relevant to
anyone's 5th grade teacher, you know? How can a democracy, like ours is
supposed to be, with a bunch of mules voting? If the progress of civilization
depends on the strength of free people to pull her forward, then what is the
value of real education?
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