[Ian] Could you elaborate on the kind of "Social Darwinists" you seem to have it in for.
Personally, I'm pretty confortable with neo-Darwinian evolutionary explanations of processes throughout the MoQ levels. [Arlo] My contention is not with evolutionary processes. I think these underscore the MOQ, and are not only unavoidable but Good. "Biological" Darwinism (just to set up my response) is simply saying that survival depends on the "strength" of biological patterns. Moths with certain markings survive because of a camouflaging effect. Lions fight to see whose seed impregnates the lionness, with the outcome determined by biological patterns (muscle size, agility, weight, etc.). Social Darwinism, at its simplest, says that who lives and who dies should be decided by social power. In days of yore, social darwinism favored the aristocracy. Who lived and who died was determined by social birthright, family status, etc. Kings received medical attention, peasants were left in the streets to die. The underlying belief was that survival should be hinged to certain social patterns. Those with these patterns were deemed "more valuable", those without were seen as "expendable". Today we retain that mindset, and have latched onto "wealth", replacing the idea of an aristocracy with a capistocracy. The idea that "who lives and who dies" should be decided by "who has money" underlies the modern discourse on healthcare. The "poor" are lazy and stupid and if they die off then it is of no loss at all. Pirsig, in my read of him, says that the value of a human life is not determined by his/her ability to generate social wealth, but by the ideas and possibilities for change that each person brings to the equation. Social patterns are in the service of the intellectual level, and should therefore support this notion of that the evolutionary value of human life should NOT be determined by social level economic prowness, but that social patterns should support human life for its idea-rich and dynamic-potential nature. 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/
