[MD] The MoQ.org STRANGLES Creativity

[Ham Priday]

Hi Platt --

Probably this question should have been directed to your thread on the
Individual Level, but
I'm curious as to how you reconcile your previous statements about
individuals being the source of ideas and their experience being the start
of everything ...

> Where in society does an idea reside before an individual
> discovers it?

> The MOQ starts where we all start, with human experience.
> Thus everything is a consequence of it.

... with this recent statement to Gene?

> If everything was always in constant balance, nothing would
> ever change. According to Pirsig, the system is tilted by Dynamic
> Quality -- the life force that drives the system to create better
> and better things.

I think most scientists would say that the universe is in a state of
equilibrium, and that the most rapid changes occur at the micro-molecular
level.  If this balance could not be maintained, we would have an unstable
system bordering on chaos.  Most of the changes at the macro level are
cyclic in nature, which makes them predictable by climatologists and
astrophysicists.  I know that you and the Pirsigians equate this ordered
system with Morality and, indeed, scientists often refer to the "beauty"
they find in the physical laws that support a balanced universe.

Not so predictable is the history of mankind, where technological advances,
regional grievances, and opportunists in power have been known to trigger
sudden violence or war.  This, I suppose, is your "intellectual level" which
runs hot or cold depending on the leaders in power.  I see no evidence of a
"life force" in our nominally balanced universe driving the course of human
affairs toward equanimity or betterness.  In fact, except for ecological
problems perceived or politicized by world leaders, I see no connection
between the intellectual decision-maker and the physical universe he lives
in.

Perhaps you can show me how the creation of better things and the
individuals' ideas that change history are affected or "tilted" by the
natural world.

Thanks, Platt.

--Ham