[MD] -elitist ideas

[MarshaV]

At 02:27 PM 3/10/2007, Arlo wrote:
>[Marsha] Hmmm.  I think Quality (a 'better' 
>word) is amoral.  And rather than a drive 
>towards "betterness", a drive towards Quality is 
>a drive towards the amoral, dynamic Quality.  Do 
>you disagree with this statement?



>[Arlo] Yes, I do disagree.


[Marsha]  And it's called the Metaphysics of 
Quality, not the Metaphysics of Betterness.

m




>Halfway through ZMM Pirsig writes "But some 
>things are better than others, that is, they 
>have more quality. ... Obviously some things are 
>better than others—but what's the "betterness"? 
>-- So round and round  you go, spinning mental 
>wheels and nowhere finding anyplace to get 
>traction. What the hell is Quality? What is it?" 
>(ZMM) Foreshadowing his later Dynamic/static 
>split, he writes "The reality of the American 
>government isn't static, he said, it's dynamic. 
>If we don't like it we'll get something better." 
>(ZMM) The impetus towards Dynamic Quality is an 
>impetus towards "something better", or 
>"betterness". As if to drive that home, Pirsig's 
>very next sentence reads, "The key word is 
>"better"...Quality." (ZMM) In LILA, Pirsig 
>mentions the Quality-Better pair saying, "One 
>seeks instead the highest quality intellectual 
>explanation of things with the knowledge that if 
>the past is any guide to the future this 
>explanation must be taken provisionally; as 
>useful until something better comes along." Here 
>again we see movement towards Quality being 
>framed as movement towards "something better". 
>(LILA) Again in LILA, talking about evolution, 
>Pirsig states, "The patterns of life are 
>constantly evolving in response to something 
>"better" than that which these laws have to 
>offer." (LILA) And, again as if to really drive 
>this home, Pirsig shortly thereafter says, "When 
>inorganic patterns of reality create life the 
>Metaphysics of Quality postulates that they've 
>done so because it's "better" and that this 
>definition of "betterness" -this beginning 
>response to Dynamic Quality-is an elementary 
>unit of ethics upon which all right and wrong 
>can be based." (LILA) I also think its worth 
>noting, even if only for literary analysis, that 
>Pirsig chooses to end both his books with these 
>statements. "It's going to get better now." 
>(ZMM) "Good is a noun. That was it." (LILA) 
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