[MD] Say what?

[Gene M]

> Uh.. say what?  How does this explain mobs and "collective hysteria"?  Or
> Jungian psychological concepts?
>
> Pirsig himself describes many facets of "The Giant" yet it seems everyone
> here dismisses the concept, acting as if it is a given that "societies"
> are
> completely subservient to individuals making discrete decisions and that
> there is no thinking organism larger than a single human being. It seems
> to
> me that the evidence is actually to the contrary - that groups of people
> (societies) DO act and behave as if they were a larger organism composed
> of
> individual humans, the society itself.
>
> I havent heard anyone argue that individual muscle cells singularly all
> decide individually to move together to effect a person's arm contracting
> -
> on the contrary, it seems to be a given that the individual is moving
> his/her arm.
>
> The only way I can explain this perspective is that all (or most) of the
> people on this email list think all actions originate with the individual,
> sort of a Copernican "I"-centered viewpoint.  Members of other societies,
> (including the "primitive" people so often sneered at on this list)
> including those from medieval Europe, would vehemently disagree.


I could not agree more with you! There seems to a be complete lack of
interest in the abilities groups of people can have. How it alters
individual psychology, removes individual traits, makes you part of a
greater whole, controlled by it.

People in general seem very attached to the idea that they alone are all
knowing, all doing, all experiencing, and are not interested in consdiering
the capabilities to exist of other entities.

Your's was an excellent post, thank you for reminding me of The Giant.

-Gene