[MD] new blog

[Platt Holden]

> > [Arlo]
> > My point here was in citing Hall's belief that the human condition
> > is one where the mass of people will always be like sheep. By the way,
> > We are thousands and thousands of 
> > years advanced from our pre-historic roots, but has the human 
> > condition changed? Do a greater percent of the human population 
> > understand love, art, beauty, Arete, agape, honor, devotion than in
> > the past? Do a greater percent of the modern population understand
> > the mystical esotericism of the Void than a hundred years ago? A 
> > thousand? Ten thousand? The cynic in me says no. 
> 
> Paco:
> 
> Let us not underestimate the people/"the masses". Many may not be able to
> understand and articulate rationally the dynamics of mysticism of whatever
> kind, but they have experience, personal and/or collective, of the
> mystical world. An indicator, if not proof, is their/our ability to
> experience beauty and create beauty throiugh art forms. The way of art
> leads to worlds beyond reason. And there are other ways. I suspect Pirsig
> had a mystical experience of Quality, and the two ways he has expressed
> his experience are the art-novel forms of ZMM and Lila. However, these art
> forms, as all art forms, fail to express the whole. Perhaps only to limn
> it? 

Yes, "the way of art" leads to new worlds, as Pirsig so vividly 
illustrates.

Platt