[MD] An MOQ based political system

[Ant McWatt]

Ant McWatt stated August 22nd:

>For genuine freedom for the majority of individuals in the world (rather 
>than a neo-con minority in the West) and a reduction in government 
>interference (one of your pet desires), I'd look towards some MOQ 
>orientated system of political anarchy with a small dose of Northrop and 
>environmentalism.  (Note the absence of the word “Liberal”).

Platt then asked August 22nd:

I've tried for 10 years on this site to get you and others on the left to
spell out in detail the political system you would like to see that you 
think
would reflect the MOQ. ("Political anarchy" sounds like Noam Chomsky). Will 
you
now?

Ant McWatt replies:

Not too sure I like the description that I'm on the political left or the 
implication that there’s much wrong with the ideas of Noam Chomsky but the 
following section from my MOQ Textbook should give you a good start in what 
an MOQ based political system would look like:

6.2.1. THE MOQ SOLUTION TO CAPITALISM

The MOQ (as a holistic philosophy that recognises social structures as being 
composed of value patterns and, therefore, being as real as anything 
material) can be employed to challenge the alienating assumptions of 
capitalism.  For instance, it considers money as a social value and, in 
consequence, recognises that it’s secondary to more Dynamic intellectual 
values such as beauty, justice and freedom.

In the MOQ making money is a social activity that should not dominate the 
higher intellectual goal of truth, or interfere with perception and pursuit 
of Dynamic Quality.  (Pirsig, 2002d)

Such MOQ principles are applied by Paradigm Research International which 
encourages companies to operate on co-operative lines and to be sensitive to 
their biological and social environments (locally and globally).  Paradigm’s 
C.E.O., Dr Robert Harris (1997, p.1) notes that such companies operate 
longer, provide a less alienating working environment, and remain more in 
harmony with the local and global environment.  Moreover, he further 
suggests that they are as successful financially, if not more so, than 
companies retaining the traditional capitalist structure.   However, there 
are relatively few ‘MOQ based’ companies and, not surprisingly, there are 
considerable difficulties in convincing shareholders and directors to share 
significant control and equity with their workers.

6.2.2. THE WORK OF MARY PARKER FOLLETT
It’s interesting to note that Harris is interested in the work of Peter F. 
Drucker (who promotes socially-conscious economic systems) who in turn, is 
an advocate of the work of Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933).  In the 1920s, 
Follett was a well known American political scientist and management thinker 
who thought a proper sharing of power within business organisations was the 
key to social progress and commercial success:

Genuine power can only be grown, it will slip from every arbitrary hand that 
grasps it; for genuine power is not coercive control, but coactive control.  
Coercive power is the curse of the universe; coactive power, the enrichment 
and advancement of every human soul.  (Follett, 1924, p.xii-xiii)

According to Drucker, Follett was a ‘prophet of management’ though her ideas 
were largely ignored in the States during the 1930s and 1940s because her 
conceptualisation of ‘power with’ rather than ‘power over’ others was 
contrary to the dominant capitalist ideology.  However, her ideas never 
really went out of favour in Britain and after becoming especially popular 
in Japan during the 1960s, American interest in her work returned.  Her 
ideas are similar to those advocated by Harris in that both think business 
organizations should be ‘flat’ networks rather than hierarchical structures.

Follett was able to advocate the fostering of a ‘self-governing principle’ 
that would facilitate ‘the growth of individuals and of the groups to which 
they belonged’.  By directly interacting with one another to achieve their 
common goals, the members of a group ‘fulfilled themselves through the 
process of the group’s development’.  (Smith, M. K., 2002)

Like Pirsig, Follett’s philosophy also draws from the work of William James, 
especially in its pragmatic sentiment.  As far as I can ascertain, Pirsig 
and Follett also have the same notion of the individual and both place 
higher value on the creative rather than the rational aspects of experience. 
  It would be fair to say that Follett is a precursor of many of the MOQ 
ideas applied by Harris to business.

The Metaphysics of Quality does definitely imply that, other things being 
equal, an employee-owned company is more moral than a privately owned 
company for the same reason that a democracy is more moral than a 
dictatorship.  Both enhance intellectual freedom within a traditional static 
social pattern and thus are a higher form of evolution.  Employee ownership 
also appeals to the old Indian idea of community of equals that allows 
maximum freedom for all.  (Pirsig, 1991a)

6.3. CONCLUSION
It seems that, in essence, that the MOQ advocates a more balanced economic 
structure retaining the advantages of (intellectually orientated) socialism 
and capitalism’s Dynamic free market.

>From a static point of view socialism is more moral than capitalism. It’s a 
higher form of evolution.  It is an intellectually guided society, not just 
a society that is guided by mindless traditions.  That’s what gives 
socialism its drive…

On the other hand… a free market is a Dynamic institution.  What people buy 
and what people sell, in other words what people value, can never be 
contained by any intellectual formula.  What makes the marketplace work is 
Dynamic Quality.  The market is always changing and the direction of that 
change can never be predetermined.

The free market… (prevents) static economic patterns from setting in and 
stagnating economic growth.  That is the reason the major capitalist 
economies of the world have done so much better since World War II than the 
major socialist economies.  (Pirsig, 1991, p.224-25)

Pirsig’s analysis is interesting because though capitalism has serious 
faults (such as Third World sweat shops and poor environmental records) its 
free market element is successful in an economic context.  The critical 
issue then is the level of control that should be applied to a free market 
to obtain as much of its benefits without the degeneracy it causes (to 
higher values such as justice) when it’s given too much freedom.   The ideal 
is obtaining a balance between freedom and order and in which context they 
should be applied.

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I don’t how much detail you want but I’ve also mentioned Northrop numerous 
times in the context of the international political arena and, more 
recently, Tom Hodgkinson (“How to be Free”) who espouses an anarchist 
philosophy reminiscent of the MOQ at the local level.

“All around us we see stressed out workers competing for the best parking 
space, snatching at every opportunity and consuming with a vigour that would 
put most drug addicts to shame - Hodgkinson, with a broad sword that takes 
in medieval merrymaking and our 21st century tax burden (higher now than in 
fuedal times according to the author) puts forward an almost unarguable 
point that we all need to slow down, consume less, laugh more and stop 
striving for the next big thing. As most people deep down know this to be 
true it took ‘How to Be Free’ for me to finally stop and, like being gently 
slapped in the face with the fish of happiness and quit rushing around like 
an idiot.”

“It's rare for books to actually stop you in your tracks (‘The Corporation’ 
- Bakan, ‘Stupid White Men’ - Moore, ‘The Culture of Fear’ - Glassner, ‘How 
Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World’ - Wheen) but I was the road rage, drag the 
dog around the park, five meetings a day, make more money screaming bundle 
of stress that somehow defines modern man. How to Be Free points to an 
alternative way of life that drags the absurdity of this modern capitalist 
lifestyle out into the bright sunshine and stabs it repeatedly with 
observations, facts and comparisons. Buy this book or alternatively, on Tom 
Hodgkinsons advice, buy a ukulele .. or was it a banjo. Buy two, one for 
yourself and one for someone you know who screams at cyclists.”

J. D. Mulder

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Be-Free-Tom-Hodgkinson/dp/0241143217)




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