[MD] Down the road of mediocrity

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting Arlo Bensinger <ajb102 at psu.edu>:

> [Platt]
> Are you suggesting those who rob to feed their drug habit are better 
> than Einstein or Picasso?
> 
> [Arlo]
> I'm suggesting that it is a lower quality activity. But you keep 
> sliding into criminality. If "some people are better than others", 
> apart from criminal behavior, how do we tell them apart? Why is James 
> Gleick (advancer of intellectual patterns) not better than Sam Walton 
> (advancer of social patterns)?

Sam Walton an advancer of social patterns? How so? To me he is high intellect
having created a better system of distributing goods.

> [Platt]
> No. Soldiers, police, firemen volunteer for those jobs.
> 
> [Arlo]
> So volunteers are better people than who don't volunteer? What makes 
> a soldier a better person than you, if not the self-sacrifice for greater good?

Fighting for dynamic freedom. I don't why it is so hard for many here to understand
and accept that in the MOQ freedom the highest value.

> [Platt]
> I'm suggesting that Pirsig agrees with me that some people are 
> morally superior to others.
> 
> [Arlo]
> You mean the wealth-producers are morally superior to the poor? If 
> not, why would you deny medical assistance to a poor person?

No, I don't mean that. What has medical assistance got to do with who 
is morally superior?  

> [Platt]
> Yes, I know you would rather give up your liberty than go hungry, or 
> "Better red than dead." For me, like Pirsig, freedom is the highest 
> value. "Give me liberty or give me death."
> 
> [Arlo]
> Since Pirsig is a self-avowed lifelong democrat, I doubt he'd side 
> with those who want to toss the poor on the streets to starve and 
> suffer in illness. "Freedom", according to the MOQ, rests on the 
> strength of the static patterns supporting it. Creating a 
> capistocracy, where who live and who dies is dependent on one's 
> ability to generate wealth is hardly something I'd consider MOQ-supported.

Freedom means you can support all the poor who make you feel good 
supporting. It doesn't mean you have the right to put a gun to your neighbor's
head and force him to pay for your cold medicine.




-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/