Narrator in ZMM: "We *do* need a return to individual integrity, self-reliance and old-fashioned gumption."
In one of the afterwords of the 25th Anniversary Edition of ZMM, Pirsig was asked if this quote was intended to provoke a political reaction. Pirsig's dumbfounded response is sensible: "I don't know of any political reaction that opposes 'individual integrity, self-reliance and old-fashioned gumption'. Both Republicans and Democrats seem to claim that is their position. Nobody takes the stump to shout 'What we need is more dull conformity!'" Not to mention graft, free-handouts, and laziness. To suggest, as Sam's question seems to, that the MOQ might be leaving integrity, self-reliance, and old-fashioned gumption behind is truly puzzling. The answer is 'no'. Sam's argument that arete (and self worth?) is a solely social construct and cannot co-exist with intellectual ideas was not compelling to me. First, Pirsig's own claim that the narrator of ZMM is dominated by social values is hard to believe, as he spends way too much time in his head. For example, while he seems to have a keen intellectual awareness of his son's problems, he doesn't make any attempt to connect with him socially. Second, Sam is at least partially incorrect to think that Pirsig has enthroned into the MOQ the Socratic idea that intellectual ideas are independent of society. Pirsig is only stating that this idea gained popularity historically as it was necessitated by a political battle, but his own opinion is that it is a myth. Recall his line that Descartes' ideas depended on French culture. Of course in another part of the book he does speak about the levels growing apart and taking on an independence, but he does so then without reference to Socrates. It seems to me that Sam is troubled by the intellectual level. Pirsig is certainly ambivalent about it himself, as it has spawned so many ideas that he takes issue with, such as materialism, amoral science, Marxism, causation, Neo-Darwinism, and objective reality. In fact the only intellectual ideas he specifically endorses in Lila are freedoms defined by the American Bill of Rights. While individual integrity, self-reliance and old-fashioned gumption are cliches that the narrator speechifies to win general approval of his audience, as Pirsig readily admits, we should be confident in believing also that he means them to be something the MOQ encourages. Glenn http://home.comcast.net/~moq __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_focus/ MF Queries - [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from moq_focus follow the instructions at: http://www.moq.org/mf/subscribe.html
