[MD] Problems with Intellectual control of Society

[John Carl]

Arlo,
Not that simple...  According to Lila, Chapter twelve, as quoted by Bodvar
the Magnificent:

"there is no intellectual
   requirement that any level dominate the other three."
>
>
>
> [Arlo]
> So let me step back and look at Pirsig's hierarchy and see if I understand
> this...
>
> Biological dominance of inorganic patterns = good.
> Social dominance of biological patterns = good.
> Intellectual dominance of social patterns = bad?
>
>

> [John]
> If we simply allow a society to evolve according to its own rules and
> process, it works things out "naturally".
>
> [Arlo]
> In the same vein, If "society" simply allowed biological patterns to evolve
> according to its own rules and process, it works things out "naturally".
>


Well, yeah.  Isn't that pretty much what we call, given a proper
metaphysical context,  evolution?



>
> So again I see I proposed hierarchy that says everything up to, and
> including, society has been wonderful, but then that icky "intellect" had to
> go and muck things up. Bad intellect! Bad!
>


tsk tsk Arlo.  You're  SO sensitive.  I'm not saying "bad".  I am saying
"dangerous".

As in powerful, mighty, with far-reaching consequences beyond intellectual
control.  Pandora's box - type warnings.  Eve, stay away from that apple!
type warnings.  But the apple is Good!  Why abstain from something good?

Because of the unpredictable consequences.



In non-mythics terms, my issue is not with intellect, its with
intellectualism.  Its with intellect as the source of value.  And when this
intellectualism is placed in control of society, bad things can happen and
often have.


>
> I'll just end here by saying that "intellectual control of society", what
> you call the "most immoral tool ever invented", is what has given us
> representative government, trial by jury, habeas corpus, state and federal
> parks, public libraries, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of
> religion, equal treatment under the law (including civil rather than
> military law enforcement), women's and minority suffrage, etc.
>

yay intellectual control of society.  If we could just stop time to right
now, I imagine we could all celebrate the great success you posit.  But
every single intellectual achievement has a part in an evolving story that
has not yet come to an end, and there are troubling signs that these
achievements are in the end, only going to exacerbate a tsunami of
destructive changes.

Interesting new phenemona observed on talk radio - actual advertisements to
give free firearms training to listeners- interspersed with ads selling
"official handguns with laser sights".

Just like the old time days of radio, with little Orphan Annie, only now
we're sending in for guns and ammo instead of decoder rings.



>
> Granted, the particular "intellectual pattern" that has been dominating
> Western society has a blind spot that has created problems, and this must be
> corrected, but before we revert back to the Dark Ages where society simply
> took care of "problems" without that pesky "intellect" getting in the way,
> lets be honest about the moral evolution that intellect has brought us.



Amen.  Let's be honest while evaluating the problems generated by our minor
errors in intellect  - that get technologically amplified into fissionistic
doomsday consequences.


One little blind spot is all it takes to wreck the whole vehicle.