[MD] [MD} The relativity of the MoQ

[plattholden at gmail.com]

On 28 Aug 2009 at 7:50, John Carl wrote:

> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 6:24 AM, <plattholden at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>   Happily, however, when it comes to
> >
> > valuation, you both place the individual (intellectual pattern) above the
> > collective (social pattern).
> 
> 
> Platt,
> 
> Isn't a "collective" simply a quantity of individuals?    How can a single
> individual intellectual person be valued above a collection of intellects?

[Platt]
There's no such thing as a collection of intellects or a collective intellect. 
Your intellect like your life is yours and yours alone. (See quote from 
Pirsig's SODV about individual values.) If you wish to persist in believing  
a collection of intellects exists, then you must also see that history is full 
of examples were a majority of intellects has been wrong. (See 
Chapters 22 and 24 of Lila.) 

> I mean, we all wept when Spock volunteered to die so that his shipmates
> would be saved, but we also recognized the truth when he calmly reiterated
> Kirk, "The good of the many outweigh the good of the one."

If you think that's true, you are one step away from tyranny where the 
tyrant or a tyranny of the majority decides what is "the good of the 
many." I hope under those circumstances that the decision to sacrifice 
someone for the "greater good" isn't you.

Platt