[MD] U.S. Values: the Jones

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Platt]
So he assumed everyone who read Lila not only read ZMM but remembered 
everything in it? As usual, you stretch credibility to the breaking point.

[Arlo]
Oh yes, Platt, how incredulous it is for an author to expect people to read 
two books.

[Platt]
So you can't cite where Pirsig made any connection between slavery and the 
free market. I thought so.

[Arlo]
You can be an excruciatingly irritating man, Platt. Sometimes I don't know 
what's worse, having to witness your constant assault on Intellect or 
having to deal with your constant distortion of what I say.

The "connection" I made was this. In 1850, the "free market" happily was 
selling people because the valuistic foundations of the market allowed this 
to occur. A criticism of slavery, then, is not a criticism of the "free 
market" but of the value forces that shape the market.

In the same vein, a criticism of commodity fetishism is not a criticism of 
the free market, but _just like in ZMM_ a criticism of the value forces 
that shape the market. In ZMM, Pirsig does not advocate the market be 
controlled, so there is no change in his position regarding the free 
market. What he DOES advocate is a critical examination of the value forces 
we bring to the market, and how those value forces have created the 
situation he describes.

[Platt]
Answer 1) what are the metaphysical foundations of the U.S. culture, and 2) 
how those foundations effect the free market. Otherwise, you are just 
blowing more smoke.

[Arlo]
1) SOMist. 2.) Read ZMM.