[MD] subject / object logic

[Arlo Bensinger]

Ron/Dan/Ant/All,

Although somewhat old (by today's standards), and one I think I've 
referred to in the past, a good article entitled "Who am We?" that 
appeared in Wired Magazine can be read at: 
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/turkle.html

Tangentally related, perhaps, it draws from the view of the "self" as 
a fluid, negotiated, social construct that exists only in the space 
between two (or more) people, and is structured and conditioned by 
cultural conceptualizations of the "self'. Or, perhaps better stated, 
the trajectory from the selfish ego-boundrilessness to selfless 
ego-boundrilessness is one traversed through social channels. And the 
end result of this journey is forever shaped by the linguistic, 
cultural, social and historical structures of that social world.

In ZMM, for example, Pirsig pointed to the root-alienation of modern 
life in the S/O metaphysical nature of Western Culture. An 
alientation that although rooted with the Ancient Greeks, for Pirsig 
becomes critical only after the era of mass-production. That aside, 
the underlying premise, echoed in LILA, is that all our concepts, 
including the "self" concept, is born, bred and rooted in the 
socio-cultural milieu.

Despite Platt's ridiculous attempt to make it an Evil Mao versus Holy 
Bush argument, this strong attachment to the self (the "small self" 
of Buddhism) is something not nearly so pronounced in many other 
world cultures. At that point its important to back up and recognize 
that our concept of "self" has excellent historical pragmatic 
ramifications, but over-attachment is as dangerous and under-attachment.

I am certainly no expert on Buddhism, but I recommend looking in the 
Buddhist notion of "anatta".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatta

Arlo