[MD] Platt's Individual Level

[craigerb at comcast.net]

[Steve] 
> For Pirsig, "freedom" just means that something is bad: 
[RMP] 
> "The hippies had in mind something that they wanted, and were calling it 
> ``freedom,'' but in the final analysis ``freedom'' is a purely negative goal. It 
> just says something is bad." 
[RMP] 
> "The experience of freedom and the experience of Dynamic Quality are similar 
> although it’s important not to carry that analogy too far. Freedom always occurs 
> as a negation of some static pattern. Dynamic Quality is affirmative." 

Steve,
Note that Pirsig is not saying that freedom itself is something bad.  Rather he is saying that freedom is the negation of something bad:  freedom of speech is the negation of contraints on speech; freedom of assembly the negation of restaints on assembly; freedom of travel the negation of contraints on travel; etc.  Freedom as a GOAL [= END] has only this negating aspect (this is the sense intended by the word 'negative' in the first RMP quote above.)  The importance of freedom is as a MEANS to the affirmative END of Dynamic Quality (see second RMP quote).
Craig