[MD] The American Ruling Class

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Platt previously] 
The notion of exploitable ignorant masses is held by those who have a
insatiable need to boost their own egos, a congenital preoccupation of the 
liberal mind. 

[Arlo] 
Since Pirsig falls into this category 

[Craig]
And now we move from fiction to slander. 

[Pirsig]
"Along the streets that lead away from the apartment he can never see anything
through the concrete and brick and neon but he knows that buried within it are
grotesque, twisted souls forever trying the manners that will convince
themselves they possess Quality, learning strange poses of style and glamour
vended by dream magazines and other mass media, and paid for by the vendors of
substance. He thinks of them at night alone with their advertised glamorous
shoes and stockings and underclothes off, staring through the sooty windows at
the grotesque shells revealed beyond them, when the poses weaken and the truth
creeps in, the only truth that exists here, crying to heaven, God, there is
nothing here but dead neon and cement and brick." (ZMM)

[Arlo]
Time for you to update more than just your textbooks, I see.