[MD] Intellectual Level

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Mary]
I wonder how long it's going to take someone to notice that the paradoxes
should be a red flag.

[Arlo]
And I wonder how long its going to take some to realize that "paradox" is an
inherent feature of symbolic systems (since all representations of "reality"
must contain themselves). Goedel "discovered" this long ago, the Zen masters
discovered it even longer ago. 

[Mary]
The fact that there are unsolvable paradoxes should be telling us that the
explanation upon which they rest is invalid.  Is that so hard to see?

[Arlo]
No. The fact that some think that they CAN resolve paradox should be telling us
something about the SOM-mindset they can't seem to overcome.

What is "invalid" is the SOM view that paradox can be overcome, that we can
build a non-selfreferential, paradox-free "metaphysics", simply by backing up
and adding another eye to see the first eye. Those trapped in SOM stumble of
Pirsig's most basic realization, "all this is just an analogy". They create an
endless ladder of eyes-seeing-eyes because they think that this "analogy" is a
shortcoming that be overcome by adding more eyes. It can't. And so they remain
forever stuck in the very thing they think they are condemning.

[Mary]
My sense is that when he 'returned' he brought with him a strong belief of
having seen something that blows away all the paradoxes. 

[Arlo]
What he came back with was the understanding that you can't "blow away all the
paradoxes", that such a fool's quest is what defines the SOM mindset.

[Mary]
So, he prevaricates.

[Arlo]
Well thankfully there are people like you to tell us what he really meant to
say, but was incapable of doing so.