[MD] Where have all the values gone?

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Arlo previously]
A long, long time ago, Ant made the astute observation that while a 
Buddhist-like craftsman could likely find craft in turning screws on an 
assembly line 10 hours a day for little pay, for the vast majority of 
the rest of us, can we really "identify" with an activity such as that? 

[Erin]
I think you make it hard to identify with that because of advice that those jobs
are so awful,  shouldn't be put up with, are brainwashed, etc. Instead of the
assemblylinesman turning their work into a craft they should start their own
business or whatnot..

[Arlo]
Are you supporting the idea that "identification" with one's labor (in the ZMM
sense) is mostly "up to the individual"? That is, the goal should be to work to
find identification with assembly-line work, rather than rethink labor
practices that have created barriers to such identification? Do you feel such
barriers (as I described) are fictional?

Also, you asked about my feelings on a day of solitude. I get the feeling you
ask because you have a hint of belief still that I equate public interaction
with good, and private time with bad. On the contrary, I find solitude (or
"reflexive" time) highly valuable and necessary. Sadly, and this takes me in
another direction (towards your distinction between "chit chat" and "intimate
conversation", one I find very worthwhile) I think that mostly (on a cultural
level) when we are alone or in a context where intimate and reflexive dialogue
could occur, we tend to fill it with "chit chat" by means of telelvision. I'm
reminded, of course, of Pirsig's description of what a chataqua is, saying "we
don't really talk anymore".

Initimate dialogue should/can/does occur in both the expansive (public) and
reflexive (private) dialogues of our daily activity. Chit-chat can/does occur
in both dialogues as well. To get back to your day of solitude, I think we ARE
spending a lot of time in solitude, but the trouble is (to me) that time is
spent in solitary "chit chat" (like watching the television) rather than
intimately and meditatively engaging with ourselves.

Not that I have anything against "chit chat", this type of phatic interaction
has strong, and positive, social and emotional aspects. However, like the
out-of-kilteredness I see between public and private engagement, I see too an
out-of-kilteredness between "chit chat" and intimate dialogue in our lives.

In short, of the four dialogic modes in this discussion:

Public-intimate
Public-chit chat
Private-intimate
Private-chit chat

We are moving, on a cultural level, towards near exclusive engagement in the
"Private-chit chat" mode. A day of solitude, ideally hoping it would foster 24
hours of "private-intimate" dialogue would be a good thing.

To end with some Pirsig...

"We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The
result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a
person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all
gone. ... The Chautauquas were pushed aside by faster-paced radio, movies and
TV, and it seems to me the change was not entirely an improvement. Perhaps
because of these changes the stream of national consciousness moves faster now,
and is broader, but it seems to run less deep... "What’s new?" is an
interesting and broadening eternal question, but one which, if pursued
exclusively, results only in an endless parade of trivia and fashion, the silt
of tomorrow. I would like, instead, to be concerned with the question "What is
best?," a question which cuts deeply rather than broadly."

Arlo