[MD] Unreality of Equality

[Platt Holden]

Arlo -

> [Platt]
> Maybe Arlo will provide us with examples of what he means by Quality
> View, Quality Intention, Quality Speech, etc.
> 
> [Arlo]
> I can only provide what Pirsig has said.
> 
> "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."

I take it from this that Pirsig's ideal is the proverbial Renaissance 
man. Is that your reading, too?
 
> This is tied in ZMM to dharma, duty to self. This is explanied in Lila,
> " Dharma is duty. It is not external duty which is arbitrarily imposed
> by others. It is not any artificial set of conventions which can be
> amended or repealed by legislation. Neither is it internal duty which is
> arbitrarily decided by one's own conscience."

No surprise that I like Pirsig's view of duty which is not arbitrarily 
imposed by others (hello government bureaucrat) and not subject to 
legislation (hello do-gooder congressman).

[Platt]
> If my ideas of what  those words mean differ from his, does that make me
> a bad person?

I shouldn't have personalized that idea as that was not my intent. I 
should have put it, "If someone thinks the meaning of those words is 
different from what Arlo thinks, does that make him a bad person?" I 
was trying to get across Pirsig's point about everyone having different 
ideas about Quality based on his life experiences, and therefore we 
ought not to adopt an attitude of moral superiority.  
 
> [Arlo]
> When have I said you were a "bad person"?

Never. My fault if I left that impression. Chalk it up to my lack of  
"sensitivity." :-)

Platt