About Hippies, we know Pirsig said this... "The Hippies have been interpreted as frivolous spoiled children, and the period following their departure as a "return to values," whatever that means. The Metaphysics of Quality, however, says that's backward: the Hippie revolution was the moral movement. The present period is the collapse of values." (LILA)
About where the Hippies went wrong, we know Pirsig said this... "The Hippie rejection of social and intellectual patterns left just two directions to go: toward biological quality and toward Dynamic Quality. The revolutionaries of the sixties thought that since both are anti-social, and since both are anti-intellectual, why then they must both be the same. That was the mistake." (LILA) We can see from this that the moral trajectory SHOULD have been a "rejection of social and intellectual patterns... and toward Dynamic Quality." The Hippies were the moral crowd. Aside from their error in moving towards biological quality, what do we know about where the hippies went right? A quick check of Wikipedia reveals a short synopsis of Hippie values as this. "Inheriting a tradition of cultural dissent from the bohemians and the beatniks, hippies rejected established institutions, criticized middle class values, in the United Kingdom opposed nuclear weapons and in America opposed the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of non-Judeo-Christian religions, championed sexual liberation, promoted the use of psychedelic drugs to expand one's consciousness, and created intentional communities... " (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippies) Taking a look at that is list form. 1. rejected established institutions Yes, that jives with Pirsig's statement above that the moral direction was in rejecting both social and intellectual patterns. 2. criticized middle class values This is similar to point one, but it harkens back to ZMM where Pirsig wrote, "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." (ZMM) 3. opposed nuclear weapons, opposed the Vietnam War "Pacifism" has deep roots in Buddhism, and since this influenced Pirsig strongly, it bears consideration. 4. embraced aspects of non-Judeo-Christian religions Here Pirsig said the Hippies got it wrong, in that they embraced elements of religious traditions that out-of-context lead to misinterpretation. Zen, he gives as an example, was misinterpreted by the hippies. But since Pirsig brought a Zen Center to Minneapolis, its clear that "embracing non-Judeo-Christians traditions" was central to the formulation of the MOQ. 5. championed sexual liberation Ah, this is the area of the Hippies biggest mistake. While rightly championing gender equality and condemning patriarchal control over women, the Hippies went too far in championing free sex divorced from love. This is the point where Pirsig said they mistook biological for Dynamic Quality. 6. promoted the use of psychedelic drugs to expand one's consciousness A hard one. It is similar to point five, but we know Pirsig himself participated in (at least) one peyote ceremony, and in that he admits to having a striking revelation that would later lead in many parts to the MOQ. So while Pirsig would caution on this point, I think he would support restricted and controlled experiences with psychedelics. 7. created intentional communities Not sure what an "intentional community" referred to, I found this from Wikipedia. "The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political or spiritual vision. They also share responsibilities and resources. Intentional communities include cohousing, residential land trusts, ecovillages, communes, kibbutzim, ashrams, and housing cooperatives. Typically, new members of an intentional community are selected by the community's existing membership, rather than by real-estate agents or land owners (if the land is not owned by the community)." Since this certainly has nothing to do with "confusing biological for Dynamic Quality", this major aspect of Hippie-values is likely another area where they "got it right". Looking down the Wikipedia entry for Hippies, a few more "values" surface. Two of these I include below (I ignored some of the frivolous values like "wearing brightly colored clothes"). 8. Hippies sought to free themselves from societal restrictions, choose their own way and find new meaning in life. 9. Travel was a prominent feature of hippie culture, both travel within one's country of origin and international travel. Hippie culture was communal, and travel became an extension of friendship. As Pirsig said, the Hippie movement was the moral movement that went astray. Knowing where it went astray (biological quality), we can look back at the values that did, in fact, make it moral. 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.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
