[MD] Social Imposition ?

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting ARLO J BENSINGER JR <ajb102 at psu.edu>:

> [Platt]
> Quality, the law of gravity and society are abstract ideas no camera can catch.
> 
> [Arlo]
> I don't think society is "an idea", adn I don't think Pirsig would count Quality
> as "an idea" either. A social pattern, let's take a nice holiday one, the
> "family", is a mutual engagement that _is_ something more than just a few
> people standing next to each other.

"Quality" is a symbol pointing to pure experience. Photograph pure experience?
I don't think so. A "family" is a symbol pointing to a group of individuals
related by DNA to one another, something a holiday photograph doesn't reveal. 

> [Platt to David M]
> Collectivists like to make us all the same so they can control us, like sheep.
> 
> [Arlo]
> I'm sorry, as the resident "collectivists" can you remind me where I said "we
> are all the same" and should be "controlled like sheep"? Or is this part of my
> hidden agenda?

I don't know. You tell me. 

> Interestingly, on Bill O'Reilly today, in support of his latest book, said (and
> I quote), "when we become a nation of individuals, when we lose sight of the
> greater good, we end up with this narcisstic, narcisstic culture that we see
> today". I thought this was strange talk for a neocon spokesman, but thought I'd
> share it.

Just goes to show . . .

> [Platt]
> As for the two cells, who knows what they deny?
> 
> [Arlo]
> Its just an analogy to remind us how foolish it likely is for us to sit around
> aggrandizing about how WE are the zenith of all things that were and ever will
> be. 

Don't you think it's better to be Arlo than a bug?



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