[MD] The MOQ's First Principle

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

Dan, All,

There is a new CNN brief
(http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/11/griffin.oregon/index.html) that has me
thinking about static-Dyanmic possible factors in this event. The brief asks
"Why did the Kims continue down such a desolate path when they so clearly did
not know where they were going?". After describing the "obvious" warning signs
(including actual signs) that should have given anyone pause to stop, the brief
goes on to say "But they did. Twenty miles down that desolate road, James and
Kati Kim and their two young daughters found themselves stranded in the snowy
wilderness."

What strikes me about this is possible parallel between this and the "Cleveland
harbor story" in LILA. This is where Pirsig keeps going on, ignoring
differences between his chart and his surroundings that should have clued him
to reassess where he thought he was. "Because of what his mind thought it knew,
it had built up a static filter, an immune system, that was shutting out all
information that did not fit. Seeing is not believing. Believing is seeing."

I say this because James Kim made one error above all others that he was unaware
of. As CNN described it, "we came to a fork in the road where a tiny sign --
almost invisible unless you actually stop the car and focus on it -- pointed
the way to the Oregon Coast. The sign pointed left. The Kims drove right." He
thought he was on the right road. He wasn't.

In ZMM, Pirsig makes reference to a similar phenomenon he calls "value
rigidity". He describes the South Indian monkey trap (you know it, I won't
describe it).

It seems to me that these come fairly close to describing what may have kept
James Kim driving along an old logging road, a "one lane, no guardrail, no
markings, no "winding road ahead" signs, no speed limit signs, no nothing" road
despite passing three "large yellow signs warning that snow may completely
block the roadway", a road that turned from pavement to gravel to dirt, leading
the CNN reporter to find "By the time we came to the spot they stopped, our
four-wheel-drive vehicle was being battered on both sides by overhanging
branches and bushes".

Why didn't James Kim stop earlier, or even turn around, despite all this? Value
rigidity? Was he ignoring all these "facts" because he was someone "sure" that
he knew where he was, that he was on the "right road"?

What do you think?