[MD] Intellect battles the [immigrant] barbarians

[Ham Priday]

Greetings, Ant --


> I'm afraid to say that Bush and Blair (the contemporary
> representatives of the Barbarians of the West) are already
> past the "gates of Rome" and are now destroying the
> cradle of civilisation (i.e. Iraq).

You don't really believe that, do you?  Mesopotamia may have been the
"cradle of civilization" in that Homo-sapiens first appeared there, but you
don't have to be a historian to realize that civilization does not arise
from tribal savagery and genocide.  It took Europe 1000 years to develop the
philosophical and sociological understanding that enabled it to climb out of
chaos and establish a modern civilization.  Islam rejected the renaissance
of the Western World and, for all intents and purposes, has remained in the
dark ages of barbarism.

> I thought the Left in the States was the natural home of academics and
> therefore rational thought?   Doesn't Pirsig doesn't call universities the
> Church of Reason?  Moreover, isn't it the conservatives who have been
> recently allying themselves with the Fundamentalist Christians (the
natural
> home of the non-rational and the crank)?

Is it rational to wage an intellectual war on the moral principles and
spiritual values that are the backbone of modern civilization?  Can your
"Church of Reason" with its 80%+ progressive liberal mindset inspire the
kind of individualism and self-reliance that once lifted the masses out of
feudal serfdom to create a free and enlightened society?

Platt said on October 30th:
> Rand elevates the individual. So does the MOQ by making
> intellect and art the highest moral levels. Societies don't think
> or paint landscapes. Only individuals do.

Ant McWatt comments:
> This paragraph is circular in its logic unless intellect and the
> individual are different entities.  If you replace the term "intellect"
> with "individual" in your paragraph, it becomes clearer why this
> is the case i.e.
>
> "Rand elevates the individual. So does the MOQ by making
> the individual and art the highest moral levels. Societies don't
> think or paint landscapes.  Only individuals do."
>
> Individuals also say "excuse me" for sneezing in public (social
> value level), eat food (biological value level) and need rocket ships
> to overcome the Earth's gravity (inorganic level).  As I have noted
> on a number of occasions on this Discussion group the human
> individual in the MOQ is a combination of the four static levels,
> not just an equivalent of the intellectual level.  But hey, I'm only a
> doctorate in the subject so I could be wrong!

Well then, Doctor McWatt, as a quadrilevel animal, which of these levels
would you say defines the conscious individual who chooses his social
values, manages his nutrition, designs rocket ships, and learns how to
overcome Earth's gravity?   Or, are these achievements simply a "collective
effort" on the part of all four levels?

Don't lose any sleep over it.

Regards,
Ham