[MD] False Messiah

[david buchanan]

Howdy Smith and all:

beauteak4u at aol.com (smith) asked:
How important is that quality of talking to thyself?

dmb replies:
Don't know what you're asking. I get the impression that you're just teasing 
me, but if you're sincere please re-phrase and try again. Same here...

Smith continued:
Wouldn't you like to be inside Hitler's head just for a little while to 
listen in...or maybe Manson or W. Don't you think that one of the things 
that drives, if not delivers the False Messiah is the Q of talking to 
oneself?

dmb replies:
Again, my response would be a big HUH?

Smith continued:
So you met with Bob for a while in England. What do you think? Did you have 
preconceived ideas about how he would be and what he would sound like? Did 
you experience a presence bigger than expected. Were you disappointed in 
anyway? Did you want to talk with him? Did you want to tell him all the 
important stuff that he might like to know but for sure you wanted his 
response to? Do you have his phone number? Can you call him up and say: Hey 
Bob....?

dmb says:
Yea. It was real nice to meet him and to meet some of the MOQers too. We all 
talked and had big fun. Going in, I was worried that he might actually read 
the stuff that's posted here because I'm so darn cruel. I was worried that 
he would notice this and be offended by it. I was also worried that I'd make 
a big ass outta myself in trying to write and delivery a paper. As turned 
turns out, he does read the posts every day was well aware of my "style" and 
is only amused by it. And, as far as reading the paper to the conferees, I 
only made a small ass of myself. No, I don't have his phone number and 
wouldn't bother him even if I did. But he can be reached by letter through 
his publisher by anyone who wishes to do so.

Smith said:
If Bob is more like a reluctant Messiah rather than a False one; where is 
MOQ? What is it's condition?
Who is the Pope of MOQ now? Did i miss the white smoke from the chimney or 
am i speaking blasphemy?

dmb says:
If there ever is a Pope of the MOQ, I'm outta here. Bob says he actively 
restrains himself for that very reason. When there is a Pope, there is dogma 
and all the thinking screeches to a halt. Don't you think? If you see white 
smoke around here, you can just assume somebody is smoking a fatty.

Smith:
i guess i had/have my own expectations of what it will take on a social 
intellectual level to make enough of a difference to make a change. If we 
know what happened to the hippies good intentions 40 years ago maybe we can 
avoid the same pitfall. ...MOQ may be the answer but not as it is now.

dmb says:
Based on the patterns in history, I'm pretty well convinced that ideas have 
the power to change the world. I couldn't say exactly HOW this happens, but 
ideas spread and sometimes take over. For would-be advocates, I guess all 
you can do is put it out there and hope for the best. So I always get a 
little bit queasy about pushing too hard. But the fact is, millions of 
people have read Pirsig and a good number of them have been touched by it. 
It has already entered the culture. ZAMM is studied widely as literature and 
just recently was put on the academic map in philosophy too. Its fun to 
watch and maybe even think I could play some tiny role, but mostly I think 
we're talking about a process that no one can control or predict in any 
meaningful way.

Either that or we gotta elect a Pope, send out the missionaries and 
otherwise prepare for total global hegemony.

By the way, Mr. Smith, you certainly ask weird questions. Hope my answers 
were equally strange.

dmb

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