[MD] Pirsig the Prophet

[Platt Holden]

Hi All, 

The U.S. is still reeling from the execution style killings of three 
college students in Newark, NJ two weeks ago. The murders appear to be 
gang related. I couldn't help but the be reminded of this prescient 
passage from Lila, 24:

"What's coming out of the urban slums, where old Victorian social codes 
are almost completely destroyed, isn't any new paradise the 
revolutionaries hoped for, but a reversion to rule by terror, violence and 
gang death -- the old biological might-makes-right morality of prehistoric 
brigandage that primitive societies were set up to overcome."

Those who cringe at the thought of a return to Victorian values may 
want to consider Pirsig's advice:

"What the Metaphysics of Quality concludes is that the old Puritan and 
Victorian social codes should not be followed blindly, but should not be 
attacked blindly either. They should be dusted off and re-examined, fairly 
and impartially, to see what they were trying to accomplish and what they 
actually did accomplish toward building a stronger society." (Lila, 24)  

Regards,
Platt