[MD] Stuck on a Torn Slot

[118]

Hi dmb,
A comment following the paragraphs below.
Mark

On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 9:43 AM, david buchanan <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> This grooving mechanic doesn't get to ignore the demands of all those
> precision parts. Caring is going to include a respect for their purpose and
> function of each part as well as it's relation to all the other parts. The
> classical understanding is very much a part of what it means to have a feel
> for the work. In other words, rejecting SOM is not at all the same as
> rejecting rationality or conceptual understandings. It's just that we change
> our relationship to those intellectual quality patterns. We are not longer
> separate from them. They are not external realities but human creations that
> help to make us what we are. Even that screw is a work of art, not the
> starting point of reality, and if that creation no longer serves our
> purposes we are allowed to drill it out and get a new one.
>
> And that's why it is so objectionable to equate intellect with SOM. It
> would prevent Pirsig's repair job from going forward. That equation says
> that getting unstuck is impossible. It says the cover plate will never come
> off again, which means the bike will never be repaired or ridden again. It's
> says we can't care and intellect itself is condemned to be forever flawed.
>
> [Mark]
>
I agree with the obsession on SOM you refer to.  The analogy you present is
somewhat incomplete, since the torn screw's removal is essential for
proceeding on.  In my opinion, SOM is one of the tools of intellect.  But,
there are other tools.  Identifying such tools is one way to diminish the
stuckness which SOM creates.  So, if we care, we understand SOM as such.
 There is no need to drill it out, just replace it.  It creates a barrier
only if we let it. SOM is more like a screw driver, and, as told in ZMM,
such tools are not always the best ones to get the job done, because they
create stuckness.

The question would be, what other tools does intellect have at its disposal?
 I have some ideas, but I am trying to pull this from the group rather than
push it through.  I have tried the former.

Cheers,
Mark

>
>
>
>
> Moq_Discuss mailing list
> Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
> Archives:
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
> http://moq.org/md/archives.html
>