[MD] French ingredient in the soup of sentiments

[Platt Holden]

Arlo, Craig, Khaled, SA, All:

Recently Arlo quotes this passage 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."

A couple of interesting things to note.

First, there's no mention of a faulty economic system being the cause 
of "our current social crisis." In fact, Pirsig has blessed the free 
market for its Dynamism. Only those with a socialist mindset could 
interpret the above passage as supporting their view that government 
interference in the free market is a "compassionate" necessity.

Second, note the phrase, "spiritually empty." There are contributors 
here who, for want of a better description, are died-in-the-wool 
materialists to whom anything "spirtual" is anathema. Even Pirsig has 
disavowed anything smacking of spirituality because of its kissing 
relationship with religion which, in his view, really sucks. Yet, here 
we see the word and the idea sneak in as something today's lost 
individuals could do well to seek out.

Finally,  what Pirsig is really driving at is better expressed in Lila:

"Each individual in his cell of isolation was told that no matter how 
hard he tried, no matter how hard he worked, his whole life is that of 
an animal that lives and thinks like any other animal. He could invent 
moral goals for himself, but they are just artificial inventions. 
Scientifically speaking he has no goals." (Lila, 22)

So long as the Richard Dawkin's scientific view of men as naked apes 
prevails we will find a continued deterioration of society, exmplified 
by the demands of French students for guaranteed employment and the 
disdain of American law by illegal aliens. After all, if moral goals 
are just artificial inventions, so is money, borders and every other 
artifact of society. 

In the face of such anarchy, a return to the last static latch of 
Victorianism doesn't seem to be all that awful to contemplate. When 
anything goes at the social level, the intellectual level is headed for 
the tubes. 

In fact, the return to some Victorian values has already occurred in 
academia. Pirsig writes: "Victorians repressed the truth whenever it 
seemed socially unacceptable," (Lila, 21)  a perfect description of 
today's smothering "political correctness."

My personal path to the spiritual is through esthetics. To make the 
"esthetically meaningless" meaningful again is, IMO, a good place to 
start in an effort to revive a spiritual sense of worthiness. The 
increasing emphasis on acquiring not just things, but fine things, is 
encouraging -- the shift from flashy American cars to "quality" foreign 
cars, in spite of America's best advertising efforts, being perhaps the 
most conspicuous recent example. There are plenty of forces working in 
the other direction towards the animal like existence science holds out 
as our best hope. But, as Pirsig suggests, it is up to each of us 
individually to discover why the scientific conclusion about our place 
in the universe is wrong.    

Platt
att