[MD] Intellect Worship

[markhsmit at aol.com]

Steve,

Thanks for the opinion, it resonates with me.



Arlo speaks of anti-intellectualism, I'm not quite sure what

that is, sounds like an intellectual endeavor to me...



In my opinion, intellect simplifies the world into categories,

labels, symbols, all tied together by strings of what we call

logic.  To say that modern man experiences reality more

(clearly) than the caveman would be a unenlightened 

statement.  What we are stuck in now is a simplified

view of the world wherein everything is subject to 

group opinion.  So much lost over the years.



We have taken the sun and broken it up into

pieces of chemistry, rotation, location, and energy.

This is intellectual, but it does not add to the sun, only

removes from it.



We can separate a painting into canvas and frame,

and brushstrokes, texture, color, hue, size, and

painter.  That is intellectualizing the painting, not the

painting.



When a movie critic goes to see a movie, he no longer sees

it.



As soon as one tries to intellectualize a poem, it is lost.



Intellectualizing is saying that the image in a mirror is you.

That image is not you, it is just an image of a body.  There

is no possible way to reflect you.



The introduction of the printed page removed 90% of the

meaning of the spoken tale.  Simplified it into everlasting

words on a page, never to change, static.  Our intellect has resulted

from a process of indoctrin
ation; to lose the magic of a child

and simplify everything into a comon experience, is 

considered intellectual.



Intellectualism has created an immensly dense

brain filter which is removing 99% of our possible experience.

Reducing our interaction with existence.

We see things (static quality) as objects, with personal

significance that is dicated to us through an established value

system distributed through language.



Intellectualism is entertaining, but nothing more than that.

I like to think and connect the imaginary dots, it passes the

time.  I like to read these posts, and sometime reply, it

creates a buzz in my head.  But then I come back to (my)

reality, which seems much more encompassing.  My thoughts

are only a small part of me.



There is nothing new under the sun, but its OK to ruminate.



Cheers,

Willblake2


-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Peterson <peterson.steve at gmail.com>
To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
Sent: Fri, Oct 2, 2009 6:59 am
Subject: [MD] Intellect Worship




Hi All,
Sometimes I get the impression that the MOQ is about becoming more
ntellectual. Intellect, as the highest static level, is too revered.
he top position in the static hieracrchy is seen as so important that
ome feel the need to make the intellectual level the "individual
evel" so that individuals can share in the reverence afforded to
ntellect and what makes others think that the MOQ itself will only
tself be revered if it is put above even the revered intel
lect.
I have news for some of you: Phaedrus is not a hero. Phaedrus is
irsig's embodiment of intellectual values as Rigel is for social
alues, Lila is for biological values, and perhaps the boat is for
norganic values. However, none of these characters represent the
deal of what we should aspire to be. Instead I think the MOQ is about
ntegrating the biological, social, intellectual, and dynamic aspects
f ourselves rather than being dominated by intellectual patterns.
onsider Pirsig's description of Phasedrus in ZAMM:
"Some things can be said about Phædrus as an individual:
He was a knower of logic, the classical system-of-the-system which
escribes the rules and procedures of systematic thought by which
nalytic knowledge may be structured and interrelated. He was so swift
t this his Stanford-Binet IQ, which is essentially a record of skill
t analytic manipulation, was recorded at 170, a figure that occurs in
nly one person in fifty thousand.
He was systematic, but to say he thought and acted like a machine
ould be to misunderstand the nature of his thought. It was not like
istons and wheels and gears all moving at once, massive and
oordinated. The image of a laser beam comes to mind instead; a single
encil of light of such terrific energy in such extreme concentration
t can be shot at the moon and its reflection seen back on earth.
hædrus did not try to use his brilliance for general illumination. He
ought one specific distant target and aimed for it and hit it. And
hat was all. General illumi
nation of that target he hit now seems to
e left for me.
In proportion to his intelligence he was extremely isolated. There’s
o record of his having had close friends. He traveled alone. Always.
ven in the presence of others he was completely alone. People
ometimes felt this and felt rejected by it, and so did not like him,
ut their dislike was not important to him.
His wife and family seem to have suffered the most. His wife says
hose who tried to go beyond the barriers of his reserve found
hemselves facing a blank. My impression is that they were starved for
ome kind of affection which he never gave.
No one really knew him. That is evidently the way he wanted it, and
hat’s the way it was. Perhaps his aloneness was the result of his
ntelligence. Perhaps it was the cause. But the two were always
ogether. An uncanny solitary intelligence."
Consider also the frequent comments in Lila about how Phaedrus has
ifficulty relating to other people and wishes he were more like
usenberry such as when Phaedrus decided on the rediculaous idea of
tudying Lila like a scientist to see what makes her tick. "She
robably wouldn't tell him anything.  Just like the Indians and the
objective" anthros. Dusenberry should be here.  He could get it out
f her.  All I'm good for is theory, Phædrus thought."
Phaedrus is not the Zen Master of the story, he is Mr Spock. He is an
spect of Pirsig's personality and not, I assume, what Pirsig aspires
o be. Nor should we. Nor should we be so=2
0caught up in the top dog
tatus of intellect. This mistake has contributed to making who were
nce the MOQs two top priests into heretics.
Best,
teve
oq_Discuss mailing list
istinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
ttp://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
rchives:
ttp://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
ttp://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/