[MD] The MoQ.org STRANGLES Creativity

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Platt]
No. Platt does not desperately want the MOQ to be a quick fix for moral
problems. He does want to use it as a guide and as an explanation as to why
some things are better than others.

[Arlo]
What Platt WANTS is for the MOQ to be an apologist doctrine for neoconservatism.
This is why he ignores (and ridicules) more than 50% of what Pirsig wrote, and
has tried to make his pet political Moral War, between the Noble Moral
Individual and the Evil Collective into every issue, every dialogue, every
debate that we face.

While Platt may personally feel Pirsig could have saved a lot of ink by simply
reducing all of Lila to the single sentance, "The Republicans are right about
everything." (and presumably not wasting his time at all on that "new age
hippy" nonsense that is ZMM), all this does is demonstrate the great perversity
of very strong static filters on experience, and the utter desperation of Party
Jesters to warp everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, into support for the Party.

I found it humorous that I was recently described as "the token liberal".
Despite Platt's efforts to portray any disobedience to His Party as evidence of
dispicable liberalism, I've never considered myself "a liberal". Oh sure, I
support publically funded land, state parks, federal wildlife preserves, and
game lands. I support publically funded EMT, fire, police, ambulance, and other
emergency services. I support publically funded libraries and museums, the arts
and theatre in our schools, publically funded roads and highways, freely
traversable public waterways, and a socialized military. But are all these
examples of "socialized services" evidence of being a dreaded "liberal"? Why
no. But mention that a civilized society should deny no one adequate, basic
medical care and one becomes The Great Enemy in the Holy War. But my valuation
of human life also extends to pregnancy and end-of-life care. It is why I
disapprove of capital punishment. And yet, despite this strong belief in the
sanctity of life, as the "token liberal" I am painted with Platt's caricature
of "moral relativism", as someone who would not blink as Noble Republicans are
carted off to die in some Gulag Plattipeligo. In the last elections I voted
pretty much 40-40-20 (dems, reps, other). And it is precisely this absurd
reductionism in Platt's Holy War that reduces the dialogue to nonsensical poles
of Pure Good versus Pure Evil, with any deviance from Platt's Personal
Political Party being desperately associated with naught but Evil. A Batman
creates a Joker, a Superman creates a Lex Luthor, any self-proclaimed Moral
Warrior will create an Arch-Villain. And so goes the game.

And part of this game is the absurd Moral War between the "individual" and the
"collective", which as Platt uses them are both social-level patterns. Of
course, ALL the MOQ levels contain "individuals", and on every level these
"individuals" engage in "collective activity", and it is from this "collective"
that higher patterns (both intra- and supra-) are able to emerge. Social-level
"individuals" engaging in social-level "collective activity" give rise to
emergent intellectual-level patterns. These "intellectual patterns", as such,
are historical and dialogic, emerging not in isolation from one social
individual, but out of the individual's participation in a collective dialogue.
Both are not only needed, they are inseperable.  To pit one against the other
in some Holy War is merely pandering to political propaganda.

Create a Moral War. Create the Immoral Enemy. Use Fear to Trumpet the War's
Urgency. Offer as Sole Solution One's Political Agenda.

You can see this in every issue, in every dialogue, over any topic. From
real-world issues such as immigration and health care, to philosophic
discussions on the "self" and the "social". Platt's SOLWAQI truly consists of
only ONE cut of the analytic knife. His Political Agenda, and Everything Else.
And this knife shapes, excises, retools and distorts everything down into the
One Moral Sentance, "The Republicans are right about everything.". If you had
to sum the SOLWAQI that would it right there. Everything, every post, could be
replaced with this one sentance. Every post by Pirsig that is used or ignored
is chosen as such based on its ability to support that One Moral Sentance.


Arlo

[Platt]
The drift of the U.S. seems to be toleration of all forms of degeneracy, except
toleration of Christians.

[Arlo]
Really? Don't you think "tolerance" should be given, before it is expected
received?