[MD] Food for Thought

[david buchanan]

Michael Hamilton said:
I wonder if it'd be better to think of the law of opposition more as a "law 
of emancipation". Free speech doesn't really oppose society - you need to 
have society to have speech - but free speech mitigates the control 
exercised by society. It's emancipation from controlling structures, not 
complete opposition to them, that makes room for DQ. Similarly, biological 
life can't change the facts of gravity and entropy, but it does refuse to be 
a slave to them.

dmb replies:
Right, the idea of freedom was presented as part of this principle a few 
days and posts ago. I never meant to imply that this oppostion was 
"complete" or that the law of gravity could be destroyed. The idea is simply 
that each new level finds a way to overcome the limitations imposed by its 
parent level. I mean, opposition is the means of emancipation, if you will.

Michael also said:
Also, I agree with Case that "society is a biological strategy". A pack is 
stronger than a lone wolf. Similarly, a society with access to science and 
technology is stronger than a society so regimented that it stifles change 
and discovery. Nonetheless, I think society can be considered as an 
emancipation from the law of the jungle. Loyalty and empathy mean you don't 
have to spend your whole life sharpening your claws and looking over your 
shoulder.

dmb says:
Well, I think the idea that "society is a biological strategy" is common 
sense among educated Westerners but it contradicts the MOQ. I don't think a 
pack of wolves is what we mean when we say "society", except as an analogy. 
I'd be willing to reconsider this position if it were discovered that wolves 
had developed from a religion or built a city or something like that. Until 
then I shall continue to believe that pack of animals is just that. I think 
Case is a run-of-the-mill SOM materialist. He's being completely sane and 
rational but this view is relevant to the MOQ only if its used as an example 
of the worldview it seeks to overcome. Or so it seems to me.

Regards,
dmb

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