[MD] U.S. Values: the Jones

[William Robinson]

Commenting on MarshaV's NY Times commentary:

If Medical Doctors want to get into a more lucrative sub field serving the
wealthy by erasing their wrinkles. good riddance. I long suspected most Docs
didn't care about healing anyway.  Mother nature often does a good job
without technical intervention. And often the industry makes medical
mistakes and human error happens/ unintended consequences and side effects.

So those doctors are doing the public a favor by switching fields and
eliminating themselves.
Robbie


On 12/3/06, Ant McWatt <antmcwatt at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Platt,
>
> Firstly, I don't appreciate you putting words in my mouth as saying that a
> whole population of a particular country is "stupid".  I'd never say that
> though I might imply that certain people or groups (in a country) are less
> enlightened than others.  Moreover, both Arlo and myself have said on a
> number of occasions that we support a free market economy though, as
> usual,
> you just chose to ignore such inconvenient facts.
>
> >Looks to me like Ant and Arlo haven't kept up with Pirsig's dynamic
> change
> >of opinion from ZMM to Lila regarding economics.
>
> Talking of keeping-up with Pirsig's opinions, check out the following from
> last month's interview with the (London) Observer (starting off with a
> particularly hilarious observation):
>
> "When George Bush was asked who was the greatest philosopher in the world
> he
> said: Jesus Christ. Right there I thought: 'My God, we are going to need
> Jesus Christ if this guy gets elected!'"
>
> "I have been a lifelong Democrat. I was born in the state of Hubert
> Humphrey
> who was, I believe, one of the most intelligent people ever to get into
> politics. My girlfriend lived across the street from him and I would see
> him
> from time to time. Speak to him. Like all ideas, though, the Democrat
> ideas
> need to be Dynamic. It's like Lila, it needs to be kept current."
>
> "I admired them, too [the Beats]. It was Eisenhower and the usual
> Republican
> stuff was going on, taxes went down for the rich and up for the poor, all
> the public projects disappeared, and people were angry."
>
> "You saw the [midterms] election result this morning? I think the world
> will
> be much happier place..."
>
> (http://robertpirsig.org/Observer%20Interview.htm)
>
> Too damn right.  It's about time you also got "with it" as well.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Anthony.
>
>
> Platt Holden posted in the following, December 3rd:
>
> >[Ant to Marsha]
> >This continual emphasis on material success (described by the NYT
> >article) unfortunately shows that the concerns in ZMM are as relevant
> >today as when it was first published in the mid-1970s.
> >
> >[Arlo]
> >Yes, so true. One of the gross maladies, referred to in ZMM's passage
> >about "vendors of substance", of this mercantilistic treatment of
> >"value" is what Marx called "commodity fetishism", and Lukacs called
> >"reification". From "Marx for a Post-Communist Era: On poverty,
> >corruption and banality", Stefan Sullivan writes: "Drawn from Marx's
> >concept of commodity fetishism developed in Das Kapital, it implied
> >simply the lack of unity between an individual and the object he
> >creates..."
>
> Looks to me like Ant and Arlo haven't kept up with Pirsig's dynamic
> change of opinion from ZMM to Lila regarding economics. In Lila he
> rejects the socialist view of the Marxist cult and instead praises
> the free market for its openness to DQ. Wouldn't it be nice if just
> once in awhile we would hear from Ant and Arlo a vigorous defense of
> individual freedom. Instead we get this constant criticism of the U.S.
> as a stupid culture inhabited by stupid people who make stupid
> decisions who would be a lot better off if they, the self-appointed
> intellectual elite, were in charge ordaining what is and isn't of
> value. From such attitudes totalitarians emerge.
>
>
>
> .
>
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