[MD] irony and socrates

[plattholden at gmail.com]

Hey Bo, 


On 18 Oct 2009 at 15:03, skutvik at online.no wrote:

> Platt
> 
> Bo before :
> > > Hitler was the least "intellectual" conceivable, the nazi movement
> > > was social value's last stand  in the Western hemisphere according
> > > to Pirsig in LILA something I agree totally with.     
> 
> Platt:
> > I think it's well to remember that in the 1920's when Hitler came to
> > power there were many "intellectuals" in the West who enthusiastically
> >  supported eugenics, the idea that the human race could be improved by
> > selective breeding and the discarding of undersirables. The Nazis took
> > this idea to the extreme, but even today its remnants persist with
> > government supported abortions at the beginning of life and
> > restrictions on medical care at the end. 
> 
> Perhaps "intellectuals" can better be called scholars and there are 
> scholars of all kinds. Religious for instance.

Actually it would be good if we could all agree on who qualifies as an 
intellectual. Even more challenging would be the question of how to tell 
a superior intellectual from a lessor one. To make a judgment based on 
what college someone graduate from or the number of academic 
degrees attained would leave out a lot of smart people. Frankly, I don't 
know the answer except to look at someone's achievements in the 
marketplace of ideas, including those in business and the arts.       


> I have a sinking feeling of MOQ's beauty dissolving when (tried) 
> applied  to various political movements. Any level's value is to control 
> the former's value, that's the one sure hallmark.and this "forest" is 
> easily lost among the trees. 

Would you say Pirsig was misguided to apply the MOQ to an analysis of 
the deterioration of values in the West as he did in Chapters 22 and 24 
of Lila? I think not. 

> You are right, the race issue was widespread in the early twentieth 
> century. From where did it emerged? Perhaps from Darwin's which 
> was a scientific theory and thus intellectual, but Pirsig speaks about 
> the "devouring" of a higher level by the lower and "Social Darwinism" 
> must be such an immoral act.

Eugenics no doubt sprung from Darwin and was an intellectual effort to 
effect "social Darwinism" by weeding out the misfit and unfit-- another 
example of valueless S/O intellect doing great harm. 

 
> Regarding abortion due to defects in the embryo is the same social 
> value devouring intellectual value, scientific methods of detecting 
> defect by various means misused by social value for its perfect 
> individual.

I see the attempt to assure the perfect individual as an intellectually- 
driven effort at social engineering by tampering with biological values. .  

> Abortion if the mother's life is endangered is pure 
> intellectual value, but here are ways to twist and turn everything.

Agree. Again I offer my favorite quote:"So convenient a thing it is to be 
a rational creature, since it enables us to find or make a reason for 
everything one has a mind to do."  -- Ben Franklin. 

Platt