[MD] French ingredient in the soup of sentiments

[Arlo Bensinger]

Craig, Khaled, SA, All,

[Craig previously]
If people have the right (non SOM) mindset, then in a free market, they 
will tend to avoid problems.  If they don't, then IN SPITE OF the free 
market, they can have problems.
You've identified the SOM mindset as the problem--why tar the free market 
with the same brush?

[Arlo]
SA, you anticipated my reply correctly (and no worries ever about 
overstepping). I'm not tarring anything. Perhaps this issue is semantic, to 
me "in spite of" indicates a counter-force. "I  was sick IN SPITE OF eating 
all those apples". With this in mind, saying there were problems IN SPITE 
OF the free market shows the belief that a free market somehow opposes 
"problems".

What I am saying, and I believe underscores Pirsig's (correct) analysis in 
ZMM, is that the "market" (let's drop "free" for right now) is only as good 
as the valuistic system of the individuals partaking of it. When that value 
system is SOMist, the market shows the malady that ZMM was written to 
expose and counter. This is why, to repeat my example, an American and a 
Tibetan Highlander will make significantly different decisions in the 
market. A "free market" in Tibet and a "free market" in America will 
operate very differently. Labor, in these markets, will be treated 
differently, products will be produced and consumed differently. This may 
be a banal truism, but it gets back to the notion that simply demanding a 
"free market" ignores the fundamental problems of what the underscoring 
cultural value system (metaphysics) will create, and which must be addressed.

The "social regulations" you scoff at are the direct result of individuals 
opposing the devastating effects (regarding labor then, and consumption 
now) of an SOMist-underscored market. I agree, with some reservation, that 
the attempt to regulate the market is misguided, that true reform begins at 
the valuistic system of the individuals. However, given that our culture is 
predominantly underscored by an SOMist (and mercantilistic, which may be 
two sides to the same coin) mindset, I think a wholly unregulated market 
would only produce the same conditions pre-1920's that individuals revolted 
against the first time around. (Yes, yes, I know, it would be wonderful to 
go back to the 1890s AS Carnegie or Pullman, but woeful to go back as 
someone who worked in one of their factories). That is, what we SHOULD have 
done in the 1920s in counter the mercantilistic dialogue, which addresses 
the ROOT of the problem, rather than applying band-aids from within the 
SOMist frame.

In short, the capistocracy brought social regulation on itself through its 
SOMist/mercantilistic devaluation of people, labor, identity, care and 
Quality. Had the "pursuit of power and wealth" been balanced even slightly 
with a regard for "employees as people and not commodities to be discarded 
like rags and treated like dirt", you likely would not have the degree of 
regulation you see today.

To do away with regulations, while supporting the mercantilistic, "power 
and wealth", SOMist mindset that underscores our culture will only push us 
back to what we revolted from in the first place. As Platt had asked 
before, until such a time as the MOQ is generally accepted, what do we do?

This from ZMM, "The cause of our current social crises, he would have said, 
is a genetic defect within the nature of reason itself. And until this 
genetic defect is cleared, the crises will continue. Our current modes of 
rationality are not moving society forward into a better world. They are 
taking it further and further from that better world. Since the Renaissance 
these modes have worked. As long as the need for food, clothing and shelter 
is dominant they will continue to work. But now that for huge masses of 
people these needs no longer overwhelm everything else, the whole structure 
of reason, handed down to us from ancient times, is no longer adequate. It 
begins to be seen for what it really is...emotionally hollow, esthetically 
meaningless and spiritually empty. That, today, is where it is at, and will 
continue to be at for a long time to come."

I say until such a time, individuals will demand social programs to offset 
the dehumanizing effect of an SOMist-based market that is concerned only 
with "power and wealth".

Arlo