[MD] A Place for the (Quality) Principled Person

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Someone said]
Pirsig doesn't specifically incorporate the characteristics of perseverance,
patience, honesty, courage, self-reliance, etc. into the MOQ.

[Platt]
No doubt they are in the MOQ somewhere. The question is, "Where?" 

[DH]
All of them seem to have social and intellectual aspects apart from  courage.  I
cannot think of an intellectual aspect to courage.  But this is a moot point
for now.

[Arlo]
I think rather than getting hung up on what may or may not be high quality
social or biological or even intellectual level patterns, a better place to be,
or a better question to ask is "what is a person who is filled with Quality?"

In ZMM, Pirsig addresses this point many times. For example, he says...

"I like the word "gumption" because it’s so homely and so forlorn and so out of
style it looks as if it needs a friend and isn’t likely to reject anyone who
comes along. It’s an old Scottish word, once used a lot by pioneers, but which,
like "kin," seems to have all but dropped out of use. I like it also because it
describes exactly what happens to someone who connects with Quality. He gets
filled with gumption.

The Greeks called it enthousiasmos, the root of "enthusiasm." which means
literally "filled with theos," or God, or Quality. See how that fits?

A person filled with gumption doesn’t sit around dissipating and stewing about
things. He’s at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see
what’s up the track and meeting it when it comes. That’s gumption."

Okay. About "gumption", Pirsig noted two types of traps that drain it away, "set
backs" and "hang ups". Let's step away from set backs, and focus on hang up.
Mainly because I think by examing the characterists that create "hang ups", and
drain gumption, we can posit that the reverse of these would be someone "in
touch with Quality".

The first is "value rigidity". Someone trapped by this is not able to respond to
Quality, so I'd posit that "value flexibility" is an important characteristic
of a "Quality principled person".

The next is "ego", also a frequent cause of "value rigidity". Hence I'd posit
that "egolessness" or "modesty" is another characteristic of the "Quality
principled person".

Next, "anxiety" or fear of failure. Since this is the opposite of "ego" (in the
gumption traps), I'd again posit that "egolessness" is again the Quality
antonymic pole.

Next, "bordom". Hence I'd say (with Pirsig) that the characterist opposite this
is having a "beginner’s mind".

"Impatience" comes next, so I'd posit "patience" would indeed be a
characteristic of the "Quality principled person".

So far, then, we have the "Quality principled person" as one who is filled with
gumption, posseses value flexibility, is egoless, has a beginner's mind and is
patient.

Also, as I posted many times, Pirsig's description of arete, as someone who is
in touch with Quality BEFORE S/O dualism breaks that attachment, goes as such.

"Thus the hero of the Odyssey is a great fighter, a wily schemer, a ready
speaker, a man of stout heart and broad wisdom who knows that he must endure
without too much complaining what the gods send; and he can both build and sail
a boat, drive a furrow as straight as anyone, beat a young braggart at throwing
the discus, challenge the Pheacian youthat boxing, wrestling or running; flay,
skin, cut up and cook an ox, and be moved to tears by a song. He is in fact an
excellent all-rounder; he has surpassing areté.

Areté implies a respect for the wholeness or oneness of life, and a consequent
dislike of specialization. It implies a contempt for efficiency...or rather a
much higher idea of efficiency, an efficiency which exists not in one
department of life but in life itself."

So we add to our original list of "characteristics of the Quality principled
person" and come up with the following.

A "Quality principled person" is someone who respects the oneness of life. S/he
is patient, egoless and possesses a "beginner's mind". S/he holds her values
flexibley, and can be seen as filled with gumption. S/he dislikes
specialization, and is an excellect all-arounder.

But we can go somewhat further. Consider Pirsig's discussion of the wall in
Korea. "It was beautiful because the people who worked on it had a way of
looking at things that made them do it right unselfconsciously. They didn’t
separate themselves from the work in such a way as to do it wrong. There is the
center of the whole solution."

The aforementioned description is evidence in the craft of the individual. As
the welder who did beautiful work on Pirsig's chain guard. So let's then
consider this final description.

A "Quality principled person" is someone who respects the oneness of life. S/he
is patient, egoless and possesses a "beginner's mind". S/he holds her values
flexibley, and can be seen as filled with gumption. S/he dislikes
specialization, and is an excellect all-arounder. In her/his work, she
demonstrates no division between art and practice, and her/his work can be seen
as possessing beauty because of their unselfconscious way of looking at things.

Now, isn't that a lot better than trying to raise Victorian social morals to a
superior position in the MOQ? No? (By the way, there are more descriptors of
the Quality principled person we could gleen from ZMM, this is just an "off the
cuff" start).