Wavedave (DTL) and Foci.
On 2 Apr.Wavedave wrote:
> MOF's
> Just some background stuff. The "F" word as it appears in my November 1991 issue of
>the
> Bantam
> hardback (emphasis is mine). Not sure it's all of them but probably most.
> ****************************************************************** "There'd been
>times when an
> urge surface to take the slips...and file them into the door of the coal stove...
>Then it would
> all be gone and he would be really FREE again. Except that he wouldn't be FREE. It
>would
> still
> be in his mind to do. p 24
I admit that there have been moments when have wondered if it
would be possible to free oneself from the MOQ, to burn all print-
outs, unsubscribe and declare oneself free, but no, it's a greater
"freedom".
> Ten Bear speech:
> "I was born on the prairie, where the wind blew FREE, and there was nothing to break
>the light
> of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures, and where everything drew a
>FREE breath."
> p 41
> "FREEDOM"
> "That was the topic that would drive home this whole understanding of Indians. Of
>all the topics
> on Indians covered FREEDOM was more important.
>******************************************** "And
> as Phaedrus' studies got deeper and deeper he saw that it was to this conflict
>between European
> and Indian values, between FREEDOM and order, that his study should be directed." p
>48
I follow you this far Wavedave, not that the following quotations
aren't correct, but you will notice the long interval from this (48) to
the next (115), so we must pause here to see what P. is up to in
the meantime.
As he tells his story the Indian/freedom obsession continued during
the sixties - after having been released from the hospital and the
motorcycle trip and the writing of ZAMM. He speaks of visiting
Dusenberry shortly before he died (in 1966) and also says that he
was involved in enormous problems of his own so there was
nothing he could do at that time. But then he continues:
But six years later, after publication of a successful book, most of
these problems had disappeared. When the question arose of what would
be the subject of a second bookthere was no question of what it would
be. Phdrus loaded his old Ford pickup truck with a camper and headed
back into Montana again, to the eastern plains where the reservations
were. (p 63 Corgi Paperback)
But it must be emphasized that at this time he had no intimation of
the MOQ as we know it. He continues:
At this time there was no such thing as a Metaphysics of Quality an no
plans for one. His book had covered the subject of Quality. Any
further discussion would be like a lawyer who, after swinging the jury
in his favor, keeps on talking and talking until he finally swings
them back the other way again. Phdrus just wanted to talk about the
Indians now. There was plenty to say
>From the old school library (which now is an university) he borrows
a lot of anthropological works and in the camper he starts on a
treatise to demonstrate how the freedom of the indians influences
the American outlook, but............:
What he read in the anthropological texts slowed him down more and
more until it stopped him (p 64)
My point is that Pdrus set out to solely write about Indians, but
the anthropological effort showed him the value connection. The
Boas tradition would not have accepted the "freedom" approach
because it was A VALUE and not objective (his mock review). After
having packed in and on his way back to Minneapolis (?) he had
the Sidis encounter, but despaired on that too, it would lead
nowhere to show that WJS also had had the Indian idea.
But all this had shown him that value - possibly - again would be
the central subject because that was the weak spot in objective
anthropology - in science generally - in subject-objectivism
specifically. He had after all recognized the SO division already in
the ZAMM, but had not called it a metaphysics, and had not
managed to formulate a Quality counterpart. And from now on the
focus is Value and not freedom.
But still the dynamic/static division eludes him, and only finds him
through the following insight
> ********************************************* "It was the moral force that had
>motivated the
> brujo in Zuni. It contains not pattern of fixed rewards and punihments. Its only
>percieved good
> is FREEDOM and its only fixed evil is static quality itself-any pattern of one-sided
>fixed
> values that tries to contain and kill the ongoing FREE force of life." P115
So when the monthly topic asks about freedom I agree with Diana
in her message of 2 April.
Bo
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