[MD] Reading & Comprehension

[david buchanan]

Mary and all:
I'd add to Andre's addition. 

One of the problems with our technological world is that we're continuing to use intellect for it's old original purpose, to find food and detect danger. The result is an exponential acceleration of crap at the expense of the natural world. Changing that status is a big part of what motivates the desire to expand our modes of rationality so that we don't do things in such a shallow, greedy, ugly way. 
Have you seen "The Story of Stuff"? It has nothing to do with the MOQ per se, but it gets at this idea of a more enlightened kind of materialism. Instead of tons of tacky junk, she says, we should have more reverence for our stuff, more personal engagement with our material possessions. 
The rights listed in our law and in the Pirsig quote are HUMAN rights, to be sure. But you'll notice how they all protect the freedom of the intellect itself. They're all about giving the truth a chance to be known and heard and wrestled with publicly. They're about restraining power from interfering with that freedom. Why? Because that's where the improvements will be formulated. That's where new philosophies will be born, where new scientific theories will be hatched and new religious geniuses will have to employ around the clock security. 
But seriously, these human rights are compassionate and that's more than enough to be in favor of them. What's just as compelling, though, is this desire to protect our best chance at a better future. Its job is to direct the development of society, I think, so that these rights are not just our ideal but actually and indeed the central organizing principle. If we really wanted 300,000,000 free-thinking American citizens, our education budget would be as big as our defense budget. For starters.

 
> Mary to Ian:
> 
> Digging ever deeper...  So, Ian, I gotta ask ya (and DMB and Bo and
> >  all) WHAT is the purpose of the Intellectual Level.  If we can agree
> >  that each level is something that has "taken off on a purpose of its
> >  own" and achieved "levelhood" because it wants/desires/values something
> >  different from its parent level, then what is the Intellectual Level
> >  after?  What does it really value that's different from the Social
> >  Level?  Don't pop off an answer too quickly, you guys. Think about
> >  this.  I am... still.
> 
> Andre replied:
> Don't you read dmb's posts Mary?:
> dmb: "Freedom of speech; freedom of assembly, of travel; trial by jury; habeas corpus; government by consent - these 'human rights' are all intellectual-vs-society issues. According to the Metaphysics of Quality these 'human rights' have not just a sentimental basis, but a rational, metaphysical basis. They are essential to the evolution of a higher level of life from a lower level of life. They are for real." (Lila 307)
> 
> But I get the idea that you (and Bodvar, judging by his response to you) want something else again?
> 
> What is it I wonder, if it is not making this world (including its people..yeah us nasties)a little better, you know, improving it a little, a little fairer, a little more harmonious. I mean, no matter how hard you try to force a square peg into a round hole, you are stuck with the notion that we are composed of all four PoV's. And the SOL certainly does not think so, that is why the intellectual level as SOL has such a weird (can't express it in any other way) 'status'.
 		 	   		  
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