[MD] Pirsig confirmed again

[Platt Holden]

Hi All:

>From time to time in the past I have quoted articles from the NY Times 
that confirm Pirsig's observations about reality. In this morning's 
paper his observation about socialism lacking Dynamic Quality was 
corroborated by an article entitled, "Vive La Dolce Vita" by Roger 
Cohen.

As a reminder, Pirsig wrote: "But what the socialists left out and what 
has all but killed their whole undertaking is an absence of a concept 
of indefinite Dynamic Quality. You go to any socialist city and it's 
always a dull place because there's little Dynamic Quality." (Lila, 17) 

Following is the gist of the article backing Pirsig's point:

"This unease has been evident in Europe of late. French youth, invoking 
revolution in the cause of stability, spent weeks in the street to 
protest and ultimately overturn a law that would have given them jobs 
at the price of losing existing guarantees against the abrupt 
termination of employment.

"The proposal smacked too much of "precariousness" for the French. That 
is to say, it smacked too much of the market, of capitalism, of 
globalization, for it is in the nature of all these things to be 
changeable, dynamic and ultimately precarious. They opted, in short, 
for security over risk, a choice many Americans find puzzling.

"Italians, too, are unhappy with the advance of "precariousness." This 
is still a society where a central goal is to be "sistemato" - secured 
in a paid position, preferably not too labor intensive, that can be 
held for life and, if possible, passed on to the children.

"But is such deep attachment to stability tenable? The general 
consensus is no. For Italy to survive in a global economy, now that it 
can no longer devalue the lira to boost its exports, it must become 
more efficient, more flexible, more precarious. It must dislodge the 
"sistemati" or get them to work harder. The same is true in much of the 
rest of Europe.

"Such stasis is anathema to Americans, for whom risk, movement and 
personal ambition are fundamental. Immigrants, who propel constant 
shifts, protested, too, in recent days, but their banners, saying "We 
Are America," proclaimed an essential truth: The United States is about 
the endless possibility of self-reinvention through hard work. It is 
inseparable from change."

You can read the entire article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/weekinreview/index.html

Platt