[MD] Are we the people stupid?

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Platt to Khaled]
How do you know most people are chasing phantom illusions?

[Arlo]
To answer, I'll turn to Pirsig.

"...he knows that buried within it are grotesque, twisted souls forever trying
the manners that will convince themselves they possess Quality, learning
strange poses of style and glamour vended by dream magazines and other mass
media, and paid for by the vendors of substance."

"...technological ugliness syruped over with romantic phoniness in an effort to
produce beauty and profit by people who, though stylish, don’t know where to
start because no one has ever told them there’s such a thing as Quality in this
world and it’s real, not style. Quality isn’t something you lay on top of
subjects and objects like tinsel on a Christmas tree. Real Quality must be the
source of the subjects and objects, the cone from which the tree must start."

[Platt to Khaled]
When someone criticizes the lawful goals and lifestyles of others, I recall
Pirsig's caution: "There are so many kinds of problem people like Rigel around,
he thought, but the ones who go posing as moralists are the worst. Cost-free
morals. Full of great ways for others to improve without any expense to
themselves." (Lila, 7)

[Arlo]
Yes, those people who demand the country adhere to "Judeo-Christian values",
well, at least those that enable them to control others at no sacrifice to
themselves, are quite the "problem people", I agree.

And also let's not forget "the conservatives who keep trumpeting about the
virtues of free enterprise are normally just supporting their own
self-interest. They are just doing the usual cover-up for the rich in their
age-old exploitation of the poor." Amen.

[Platt to Khaled]
Of course, you have a point about hamsters since the scientific SOM view 
of humans is that we are glorified hamsters--no better really than any 
other animal.

[Arlo]
Yes, and we all know that once people believe they are no better than hamster,
the next thing they'll start demanding fair treatment in the workplace.
According the Great Conservative Logic, at any rate.

[Platt to Arlo previously]
How come you never address the Dynamism of capitalism compared to dull"
socialism?

[Arlo]
I've said I favor a free market. I also believe to remain free the market must
be regulated. And, furthermore, I don't believe everything is reducible to a
"market commodity".

[Khaled to Platt]
First you have to show me Capitalism that thrived WITHOUT government welfare,
protection and subsidies.

[Platt]
To answer, I turn to Pirsig: [quote about Victorian industriousness snipped]

[Arlo]
To answer, I turn to Pirsig.

"Victorians in America, she explained, were nouveau fiche who had no guidelines
for what to do with all their sudden wealth and growth. What was depressing
about them was their ugly gracelessness: the gracelessness of someone who has
outgrown his own codes of self­regulation.

They didn't know how to relate to money. That was the problem. It was partly the
new post-Civil War industrial revolution. Fortunes were being made in steel,
lumber, cattle, machinery, railroads, and land. Everywhere one looked new
innovations were creating fortunes where there was nothing before. Cheap labor
was pouring in from Europe. No income taxes and no social codes really forced a
sharing of the wealth.

After scrambling for their lives to get it, they couldn't just give it away. And
so the whole thing became involuted.

...

Instead of improving the world forever with their high-flown moral codes they
did just the opposite: left the world a moral vacuum we're still living in."

Arlo