Re: MD mescaline

[Wim Nusselder]

Dear Glen ("AreteLaugh"),   I'm afraid I don't really appreciate being questioned without getting any information about your opinions or (preferably) experiences (like in your 23/6 09:35 -0700 post), especially as you questions taste like criticism of my writings. Did you feel attacked by my writings? I didn't mean to. I replied to David's "invitation" to try mescaline, explaining why I don't intend to and granting anyone the right to do, but I may have used formulations with moralising overtones for some of you. Excuse me if that's the case. Possibly having been at fault myself, I will put up with your criticism and uncomfortable style and answer your questions as good as I can.   "Don't you think that those of us from a Western culture should be free to modify that culture to suit our needs?" Interpreting "Western culture" as (Pirsig's) social statical patterns of value: Not if your needs are biological, only to the extent that they are intellectual. I like Marco's suggestion (20/6 22:48 +0200) to take "intellectual" in a broad sense though, including rational, emotional and spiritual "forms". So please explain yourself if you think, feel or are inspired to state that Western culture is or can be modified to the better by drugs.   "Would you call the current US government's 'War on Drugs' not relevant to the world at large?" What makes you think so? I don't think my stating the irrelevance of drug induced DQ-experience to the world at large implies that. (By the way: I don't like any war. See [EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg05021.html, my post of 12/6 23:17 +0200)   "Would you say that Psychedelic music was not a static pattern of value?" I know very little about Psychedelic music. You mean that someone must take drugs to produce it, which makes experiencing DQ by drug users relevant for the world at large as it would otherwise miss something valuable like Psychedelic music? Music consists (I think) of intellectual patterns of value (in the broad sense) that can be of value "to the world at large" by offering freedom to social patterns of value. I don't know to what extent Psychedelic music does and can be considered valuable. Do you?   "Do you think it reasonable to compare two experiences, one of which you ... admit to never having experienced?" Yes, I do. The intellectual level consists of symbolic representations of (inorganic, biological, social and less abstract intellectual) reality. Its rationale is to enable discussing phenomena you haven't directly experienced. I admit it is risky. Symbolic representations can be false. Comparing different experiences (at different times in different circumstances), even if you have experienced them your very self, may be even riskier. The difference in value experienced may be due to the difference in circumstances more than to the experience itself. E.g. when I, being part of a subculture (socially) valuing religious experience much higher than drug-induced experience, would take drugs, I would almost certainly value the latter experience much lower than someone being part of a subculture in which using drugs is considered "cool". I admit to having a prejudice against subcultures in which using drugs is normal. I don't see them changing society as a whole for the better. Please cure me of that prejudice by telling me about your experiences.   With friendly greetings,   Wim Nusselder