[MD] irony and Socrates

[Ham Priday]

Greetings John (Marsha mentioned) --


On 10/20 at 5:35 AM Marsha iPhoned a quote from ZMM which stated in part:

"Programs of a political nature are important end products
of social quality that can be effective only if the underlying
structure of social values is right. The social values are right only
if the individual values are right. The place to improve the world
is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then to work
outward from there."

At 12:07 PM you welcomed Marsha back with a personal belief which turns this 
concept on its head:

> I believe individual values arise from social patterns, starting
> with the most basic of all social interactions, mother and child.

You then criticized Pirsig for being "dialectically deficient".  The love 
between mother and child represents the value of each participant in this 
relationship.  But if value arises from social patterns there ARE NO 
"individual values".  If anything is dialectially defiicient here, it's your 
interpretation.

The most fundamental role of man is to bring value into existence.  He does 
this incrementally, by differentiating value into representative phenomena 
(objects and events) on which he passes judgment. "Man is the measure of all 
things," and value sensibility is his yardstick.

Your revered author is right is this instance.  Value-sensibility is the 
very essence of man.  Without it there would be no value, and without 
realized value life would be meaningless.

Essentially speaking,
Ham