John said to Arlo:
SOM is a social pattern.
dmb asked John:
Why do you think SOM is a social pattern?
John replied:
I don't. I think our society operates according to a philosophy that has SOM
as it's metaphysical basis. Is there any argument about that?
dmb asked John:
Why do you think the giant MUST work according to SOM rules?
John replied:
Well to be sure, I wasn't so much asserting as asking. But my reason for doing
so is that it seems SOM is uniquely suited to social patterns - it sees
everything in terms of subjects and objects, and that is exactly what a
well-ordered society must do if it wants to protect people's objects and keep
it's subjects in line.
dmb says:
Hmmm. I think this exchange reveals two sad facts: 1) Your assertions are a
series of moving targets and 2) Despite the explanations in Pirsig's book and
in the article I posted for your benefit, you apparently do not understand what
"SOM" means.
The reason you give as to why the giant MUST work according to SOM rules, for
example, is terribly confused and quite irrelevant to the problem of SOM. "SOM
is uniquely suited to social patterns," you say, because "a well-ordered
society ...wants to protect people's objects and keep it's subjects in line".
Here you have construed subjects and objects as citizens and their property.
That's not just not what anyone means by subject-object dualism. That's just
totally wrong and super goofy. And the slippery nature of your assertions makes
it even worse. C'mon, John. This kind of stuff makes it impossible to have a
conversation.
Pirsig makes a case that intellectual values should be in charge of society
BUT, he says, there is a flaw (genetic defect) in the form of rationality that
has inherited this task. That is where the problem of SOM resides. I think
maybe you want to refer to SOM as the intellectual level values that rule
society, but not as social values. You see the difference? The culture is
comprised of both social and intellectual values and the question in Lila is
"which one is going to run the show?" So one of the biggest questions is how to
expand rationality beyond SOM so that society has better leadership, so to
speak. That's what the MOQ is, basically. A picture of that expanded
rationality, one that can lead society without the problems of SOM, problems
like value-free science, relativism, nihilism, alienation, etc., etc..
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