[MD] a-theism and atheism

[Platt Holden]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "david buchanan" <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com>
To: <moq_discuss at moqtalk.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2010 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: [MD] a-theism and atheism


>
> Arlo said to dmb:
> You know, the funny thing is that those who pride themselves for being 
> "outside" the wall mistakenly think that they themselves are not behind an 
> "immune system" of some sort, that it only us damned interlictials that 
> suffer from being behind an immune system.
>
>
> dmb says:
> Funny? Again, you are much, much nicer than I am. I'd characterize these 
> "outsiders" as preposterous and ridiculous, which is to say they have it 
> exactly backwards and their objections are only meant as ridicule. In that 
> quote, Pirsig is asking the Oxfordians to give me and Ant a fair hearing. 
> He says we "deserve the careful, open-minded attention that early 
> proponents of any idea need" because the MOQ "is still in its infancy". 
> He's asking the academic insiders to listen to us and in that sense we are 
> the outsiders. Ant was the first in the world to get past that immune 
> system. That's no small feat, one that inspired me to change my whole 
> life. That's not small either. But the anti-intellectual crowd turns that 
> on it's head, as if Ant and I didn't go to Oxford to put ourselves into 
> heart of the lion's den.
>
> Anyway, thanks again for being so sane and so gracious about this stuff.

Platt
Since the intellectual doctrines the academy is committed to are, in 
Pirsig's words,"screwing everything up," I think it's immune system deserves 
criticism rather than ass kissing. It's those intellectual doctrines after 
all that have brought us to the catastrophe we are now witnessing throughout 
Europe as the socialist welfare state comes apart at the seams. In Chapters 
22 and 24 of Lila, Pirsig lays out how intellectuals have played a prominent 
role in creating social paralysis. Is it any wonder that there's an 
anti-intellectual crowd? One need only open his eyes and mind  -- and read 
ZAMM and Lila -- to understand.