[MD] extricating MOQ from SOM

[Jaclyn Engele]

Rebecca said:
  I use the MOQ in everday life to help me through tricky situations but of
  late I've been turning to the Tao more and more.  All of our thinking isn't
  for naught, though.  I'm finding more and more that my friends come to me
  for advice when they're trying to find a path through some difficult time.
  I usually try to give them a larger perspective on the matter - with a dash
  of commiseration for whatever they're going through.  That's a useful enough
  application for Pirsig's philosophy for me.  I spend my time thinking about
  these things so that others can spend their time thinking of other things...
  like peak oil and remediating contaminated soils... we lean on each other
  and we learn from each other.  That's what society is, each person has a
  place.

  We cannot know who the saviour will be until the saving is over and done
  with.

  Rebecca

With the discovery of Bodvar Skutvik's ideas on the Subject/Object Level (SOL or Intellectual level), I see this in your letter:

  ...we lean on each other and we learn from each other.  That's what society is, each person has a place...


'Lean on each other' represents feeling or subjectivity.  'Learn from each other' represents reason or objectivity.  That's what the SOL is, not society.  At the sociological level, we would be doing what was expected of us, nothing more.  Life was hard and if you didn't fit your place, you were cast out, those were the rules.  You are representing the highest values we have, to lean on and learn from each other is valuable.  To question one's place in society would be a revolting concept to a Victorian.  Today, I say to do anything less is immoral.

Jim Engele