[MD] Cartman Lives?

[david buchanan]

Arlo (the Pol Pot-loving puppy killer) said:
... since Platt is simply doling out more "fear rhetoic", let me remind here 
that the "dictator's first move" has historically been to vilify the Academy 
and marginalize the media. Hitler's effectiveness in attaining power stemmed 
directly from his two-front vilification...  Let's also remember that the 
"dictator's first move" also always includes the condemnation of criticism 
to the regime as "unpatriotic" and "treasonous". Those who would condemn the 
dictator would be branded as "aiding and abetting the enemy", vilified as 
traitors and enemies of freedom. So, yes, let's consider these "frightening 
wishes remindful of a dictator's first move".

dmb says:
Exactly. The use of these tatics by Hitler is a fact of history and we see 
the same thing happening right now in the USA. It is less overt and it is 
being conducted in english instead of german, but otherwise it is the same 
anti-intellectual, patriotism-as-conformity, racist, red-baiting, xenophobic 
bullshit. Not to mention the incoherent nonsense these reactionaries spew 
about "freedom", such as the recent talk-radio complaints about the 
"fairness doctrine". This "doctrine" doesn't limit anyone's speech. It only 
asks that broadcast time be given to an opposed point of view or, in other 
words, it only asks that nobody's view be immune to a challenge or a reply. 
Its about protecting intellectual freedom and fostering intellectual 
quality. I think that opposition to the "fairness doctrine" is an 
anti-intellectual position. Platt's opposition to it does not surprise me. 
Nor am I surprised by his defense of American liberty by way of the 
so-called free market. It's soo,oh,oh typical of today's American fascists. 
Here are two Pirsig quotes, one from Lila and one recently posted by Ant 
from his textbook....

"Communism and socialism, programs for intellectual control over society, 
were confronted by the reactionary forces of fascism, a program for the 
social control of intellect. ...The gigantic power of socialism and fascism 
...is explained by a conflict of levels of evolution. This onflict explains 
the drivin force behind Hitler not  as an insane search for power but as an 
all consuming glorification of social authority and hatred of 
intellectualism. His anti-Semitism was fueled by anti-intellectualism. His 
hatred of communists was fueled by anti-intellectualism. His exaltation of 
the German volk was fueled by it."

"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."

Dr. McCommielover replied to the puppy killer:
This is one of the things that especially concerns me with Platt, his nearly 
complete uncritical acceptance of the status quo’s dominating viewpoint.  If 
he lived in a similar social position in Nazi Germany, Communist Russia or 
Taliban Afghanistan, he would no doubt be taking the party lines found there 
without question and especially the anti-academic line found in all these 
socially dominated societies.  ...keeping in mind Platt’s recommendation 
that you should visit the Holocaust Memorial, I suggest that it would be 
more constructive if, instead, he (as a neo-con supporter) visited the 
similar memorials in Chile or Vietnam.

Mr. Commiekiller McPuppylover (Just to balance things out) adds:
Exactly. Its strange how he parrots talk-radio and loves the law and order 
stuff, especially considering the way outcasts and contrarians play the hero 
in Pirsig's books. Pirsig is anything but an advocate of conformity. As 
Emerson said in THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR in 1837, "Imitation is suicide". (Guess 
what we're reading in my Pragmatism class.) He says, "the self-directed" 
must "defer never to the popular cry" and live in a "state of virtual 
hostility" to society. This struck me as very similar to the MOQ's portrait 
of the clash of social and intellectual values but he also seems to express 
the idea the Dynamic Quality is better than either of those. And that's what 
I wanted to add.

Emerson's piece does far more than make a case for good, independent 
American scholarship. He looks more like a mystic to me and in the portrait 
he paints of the scholar he asks the intellectual to be a saint, an 
enlightened person, a genuine and authentic person, an artist and an 
original thinker. I was quite humbled and astonished by it. He says, "The 
one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul." The sort of creative 
genius, he says, "is the sound estate of every man, In its essence it is 
progressive. ...springing spontaneous from the mind's own sense of good and 
fair." (Need we ask anyone, Phaedrus?) "In the right state he is Man 
Thinking. In the degenerate state ...a mere thinker, or still worse, the 
parrot of other men's thinking." (Yes, i see the irony in quoting that.) 
Books, he says, "are for nothing but to inspire". "Undoubtedly there is a 
right way of reading, so it be sternly subordinated. Man Thinking must not 
be subdued by his instruments." This is the sort of stuff that made him 
sound like a mystic and he touts Swedenborg (Named in Lila as a mystic) at 
the end of he piece, which would support the notion too.

Following up on this hunch, I discovered this piece was written just before 
he started reading the Vedas and other Eastern texts. Maybe his later stuff 
reflects that and is even closer to the MOQ. We're reading Emerson as a sort 
of proto-Pragmatist. He looks like a pragmatist and he influenced William 
James especially. Henry James, the father of William, was also a 
Swedenborgian. I guess that had some influence on him too.

On Feb 29th, 1860 they all met at a secret meeting and agreed that slavery 
had to be abolished. They all agreed with the popular motto of the day, "we 
should fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here", even 
though it didn't make much sense on the eve of the civil war. They also 
agreed that we should support our troops by shopping as often as possible. 
Each of them named Jesus as their favorite philosopher. Why? Their belief in 
healing miracles allowed them to oppose socialized medicine. In fact, they 
often intentionally misquoted him as saying "let the children suffer" 
instead of "suffer the children". "No cash value", William would sometimes 
add. Then they'd laugh their pragmatic heads off. That's what Platt said he 
got from Wikipedia, anyway.

Thanks,
dmb

_________________________________________________________________
More photos, more messages, more storage—get 2GB with Windows Live Hotmail. 
http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_2G_0507