[MD] British Emergentism

[Arlo Bensinger]

[John]
Quality makes us invent earth. Arlo's happy.

[Arlo]
Arlo dislikes this metaphor. Quality does not "make" us do anything. 
We are free to respond TO Quality. Sure, as I agreed with Mark, there 
is what others have called "structuration" here, but there is not coercion.

[John]
Quality makes gods, now  Arlo's pissed.

[Arlo]
Arlo has already stated his personal love for mythology, and the 
value he finds in esoteric/gnostic/metaphoric reads of the stories of 
man. But again, Quality does not "make" gods. MAN makes GODS in 
response to Quality.

What Arlo IS pissed about, is the effort to make Quality INTO a god. 
Well, not pissed, call it "aggressively cautious".

[John]
There's only one thing in Pirsig's list that Arlo is not willing to call real.

[Arlo]
That's inane. Trees are biological patterns of value. God is a social 
pattern of value. I don't call one "real" and the other "not real", I 
call them both "patterns of value that emerge in response to Quality".

[John]
I think Arlo has a grudge.  But how can you have a grudge against 
something that doesn't exist?

[Arlo]
Arlo thinks John is being absurd, but has seen this predictable 
apologist rhetoric here before. How could Arlo hold a grudge against 
the Mythos?

[John]
I think Arlo is confused.

[Arlo]
Arlo knows he is not, and asks you to actually read what he says now and then.