[MD] Social Intellectual

[david buchanan]

Pirsig wrote:
"What makes the free-enterprise system SUPERIOR is that the socialists, reasoning intelligently and objectively, have inadvertently closed the door to Dynamic Quality in the buying and selling of things." (Lila, 17, emphasis added by Platt)


Pirsig wrote:
"From a static point of view SOCIALISM IS MORE MORAL THAN CAPITALISM. It's a higher form of evolution. It is an intellectually guided society, not just a society that is guided by mindless traditions. That's what gives socialism its drive."  "the conservatives who keep trumpeting about the virtues of free enterprise are normally just supporting their own self-interest. They are just doing the usual cover-up for the rich in their age-old exploitation of the poor."
 (Lila ch17, EMPHASIS ADDED BY RON)



Pirsig's wrote:
"...a culture that supports the dominance of intellectual values over social values is absolutely superior to one that does not." (Lila, p.311)

"That's what neither the socialist nor the capitalist ever got figured out. From a static point of view, socialism is more moral than capitalism. It's a higher form of evolution. It is an intellectually guided society, not just a society that is guided by mindless traditions. That's what gives socialism its drive. But what the socialist left out and what has all but killed their whole undertaking is an absence of a concept of indefinite DQ. You go to any socialist city and it's always a dull place because there's little DQ. On the other hand the conservatives who keep trumpeting about the virtues of free enterprise are normally just supporting their own self-interest. They are just doing the usual cover-up for the rich in their age-old exploitation of the poor. Some of them seem to sense there is also something mysteriously virtuous in a free enterprise system and you can see them struggling to put it into words but they don't have the metaphysical vocabulary for it any more than the socialists do." (expanded a bit by dmb)

"It is not that Victorian social economic patterns are more moral than socialist intellectual economic patterns. Quite the opposite. They are less moral as static patterns go."


dmb says:

To be intellectually honest and to get a reasonably accurate picture of Pirsig's meaning, we have to add these up. These quotes are all part of a single analysis and they should all fit together quite comfortably. As Platt construes it, however, the statements about the moral superiority of socialism are to be ignored and the positive statements about capitalism are to be emphasized to the exclusion of every other statement on the topic. This is a selective use of evidence and it is dishonest. Since this has been going on for years, I'd say it's dishonest in the extreme.

Again, the MOQ moral compass says, "a culture that supports the dominance of intellectual values over social values is absolutely superior to one that does not." (Lila, p. 311) When we add up the quotes so that they all fit together, Pirsig is saying that socialism is morally superior because it supports intellectual values over social values. He's also saying that capitalist countries are more successful in the buying and selling of things, even though they don't have the metaphysical vocabulary to understand why any more than the socialists do. "That's what neither the socialist nor the capitalist ever got figured out," Pirsig says, but Platt wants to use this lack of understanding ONLY against the socialists, as if capitalist didn't operate on exactly the same absence of understanding. That is another way in which he uses these quotes dishonestly and selectively.

I think it's pretty clear that the MOQ is advocating an intellectually guided society that does NOT inadvertently close the door to DQ. The idea here is to give socialism the metaphysical vocabulary it needs. Political and social conflicts are not the sole aim, of course, this metaphysical vocabulary is also supposed to improve science, art, religion, philosophy and rationality in general. The MOQ political analysis is supposed to be consistent with all that too. There room for honest debate, of course, and this does not mean that the MOQ is opposed to any kind of conservatism. But Platt's pants have been on fire for a long time now.


"That's what neither the socialist nor the capitalist ever got figured out. ..concept of indefinite DQ  ...they don't have the metaphysical vocabulary for it any more than the socialists do." (trimmed a bit by dmb)



 		 	   		  
_________________________________________________________________
The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. 
http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendar&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_5